British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declined to confirm how many children he has as his love life has attracted attention in recent months.
His refusal to speak about his children follows the reemergence of a column he wrote in 1995 that referred to single mothers as “irresponsible.” He described the children of single mothers as “ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate.”
“I love my children very much, but they are not standing at this election, and I am not, therefore, going to comment,” Johnson said Friday.
“I am not going to put them on to the pitch in this election.”
Johnson’s romantic life came under scrutiny months ago when he was accused of having an affair with an American businesswoman while he was the mayor of London. The businesswoman, 34-year-old Jennifer Arcuri, was awarded tens of thousands of pounds in government funding during the alleged affair.
At the time of Arcuri and Johnson’s relationship, Johnson was married to his second wife, Marina Wheeler. The two separated in 2018 and have four children: Lara, 26, Milo, 24, Cassia, 22, and Theodore, 20. The prime minister also has a 10-year-old daughter, Stephanie, with Helen Macintyre, an art adviser with whom he had an affair.
Since his separation from Wheeler, Johnson, 55, has been dating Carrie Symonds, a 31-year-old senior adviser for the environmental group Oceana.
Johnson has a long history of infidelity. He had a four-year affair with journalist Petronella Wyatt in 2004 that resulted in two pregnancies — one that was aborted and the other ended in a miscarriage.
In 2013, there were claims he had a sixth child.
