Julian Assange’s lawyer and lover announced that the Wikileaks founder fathered two children with her.
Stella Morris, a member of Assange’s legal team, said Sunday that she and Assange, who is facing 18 criminal counts, had two children together in a plea for British authorities to release him. The revelation was announced via a video interview released by Wikileaks.
Morris said she first met the 48-year-old Assange in 2011 and began a relationship with him about three years later, becoming engaged in 2017. She said they decided to have children to “break down the walls around him” and “imagine a life beyond prison.” She additionally told the Mail on Sunday that the couple had two sons, aged one and two.
“I love Julian deeply and I am looking forward to marrying him,” the paper quoted her as saying. “Over the past five years I have discovered that love makes the most intolerable circumstances seem bearable, but this is different — I am now terrified I will not see him alive again.”
Assange had been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he was granted asylum for seven years before that was revoked. Now, Morris is pleading with the court to release Assange from prison because of the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the United Kingdom.
The Wikileaks founder was arrested just over a year ago and is facing up to 175 years in U.S. prison for a slew of charges, including espionage and computer hacking. The United States has accused Assange of working in coordination with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack the Department of Defense and releasing secrets that put U.S. citizens in danger.
Morris said that Assange’s life “might be coming to an end” because of the coronavirus pandemic and reiterated fears that he may die by suicide, according to NBC News.
“I have feared with strong reason for a long time that I will lose Julian to suicide if there is no way in which he can stop his extradition to the U.S.,” Morris wrote last month in a witness statement. “I now fear I may lose him for different reasons and sooner to the virus.”
Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson told NBC News that Morris feared going public about the children.
“She wanted to speak in support of Julian’s bail application given the grave risk to his health in prison during the COVID pandemic and the judge refused her anonymity,” Robinson said.
Assange has been denied bail as he remains in London’s Belmarsh high-security prison. His extradition hearing is set to begin again in May.
