Boris Johnson's secret Catholic wedding

They had been secretly preparing the wedding for six months. To mislead, these days they sent their family and friends a reminder, announcing that they were getting married on July 30, 2022. But the date set by Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds was actually May 29, 2021, taking advantage of the fact that the country would be sufficiently entertained with the Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester City.

The surprise was double because the 'premier', twice divorced and with a long history of loving infidelities, finally decided to “tie the knot” at a Catholic wedding (the religion of Carrie and Boris's mother, Charlotte) and at the Westminster Cathedral (not to be confused with the famous Anglican Abbey).

The ceremony was actually held in a small chapel, the Lady Chapel, and was officiated by Father Daniel Humphreys, the same man who baptized the couple's son Wilfred a year ago.. Humphreys maintained the link with such secrecy that practically no one in the church knew until the last minute the identity of the VIP who came to get married at two in the afternoon and forced all the doors to be closed.

Most of the guests (thirty, in strict compliance with the Covid restrictions) were notified hours in advance, to avoid leaks. Among them, Stanley Johnson, the father of the “premier”, and his brothers Rachel, Jo and Leo. The bride went ahead of practically everyone and arrived in a limousine and dressed in white, without a veil but with a crown of flowers on her head; a model by designer Christos Costarellos that was around 3,200 euros. Boris Johnson appeared in a black suit, less scruffy and more elegant than usual for him. He only had eyes for the bride.

It was the first wedding for a Downing Street tenant since 1822, when Robert Jenkinson married Mary Chester after the death of his first wife.. Johnson (56 years old) and Symonds (33) had already made history as the first unmarried couple to live together in the prime minister's dark mansion, where by the way there was a party until the wee hours of Saturday, in the light of the parade of musicians entering and going out the gate.

Downing Street finally confirmed the news and distributed the official photo early on Sunday. The statement reports that the couple has decided to postpone the honeymoon until the summer, although a short getaway along the Cornish coast is not ruled out after the G7 summit from June 11 to 13, where Carrie Symonds will officially receive international leaders. as “Mrs. Johnson”.

“How was the Prime Minister able to marry for the third time and for the Catholic Church?” Was the question that the British asked themselves when they heard the news.. The writer Catherine Pepinster had the answer: “For the Catholic Church it was for all intents and purposes as if it were the first marriage, since the previous ones occurred in unrecognized places.”

They meet all legal requirements

A spokesman for Westminster Cathedral said that “all legal and ecclesiastical requirements” had been met for the wedding to be carried out by the Church.

Boris Johnson first married in 1987 to his Oxford University sweetheart Allegra Mostyn-Owen. In 1993 he married the lawyer Marina Wheeler, mother of his four children.. The divorce was consummated in March 2020, a week before his engagement to Carrie Symonds, former press officer for the Conservative Party, with whom he had had a relationship for two years.. The couple had planned to get married in the summer of 2020, but the two contracted the Coronavirus and the plans were postponed between successive lockdowns.

The wedding of Johnson and Symonds put the counterpoint to a week marked by the explosive seven-hour testimony in Parliament of former adviser Dominic Cummings, who accused the “premier” of causing “tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths” with his erratic strategy against the covid. Johnson was also acquitted in recent days of possible breach of the ministerial code in the so-called 'Wallpapergate', the redecoration scandal of 11 Downing Street that cost more than 100,000 pounds and in which Carrie Symonds had a starring role.