Johnson expecting baby with Symonds, announces engagement

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds have announced that they were engaged and expecting a baby, media reports said.

The news was posted on Instagram by Symonds, 31, on Saturday evening and accompanied by a picture of her and the Prime Minister, the Metro newspaper said in a report.

"I wouldn't normally post this kind of thing on here but I wanted my friends to find out from me. Many of you already know but for my friends that still don't, we got engaged at the end of last year... and we've got a baby hatching early summer," she said in the post.

The couple made history last July by becoming the first unmarried couple to officially move in together into Downing Street.

They spent the end of last year on a luxury Caribbean vacation in Mustique.

The Prime Minister, 55, has five confirmed children but it will be the first for his new fiancee, who is the former Conservative Party head of press.

A spokesperson for the couple said on Saturday night: "The Prime Minister and Symonds are very pleased to announce their engagement and that they are expecting a baby in the early summer."

Johnson has come under repeated scrutiny for his private life, said the Metro newspaper report.

In 1987, he married Oxford University girlfriend Allegra Mostyn-Owen. They divorced in 1993 after he cheated on her with Marina Wheeler, who he married later that year.

They had been childhood friends and met as pupils at the European School in Brussels. Together they had four children but announced they were divorcing in 2019 as his relationship with Symonds came to light.

A divorce settlement was finalised earlier this month and Wheeler, a human rights lawyer, was given permission to apply for a decree absolute to end their 25-year union.

Johnson is believed to be the first prime minister to be divorced in office in modern times. He will also be the first to get married while in charge, although no date has yet been announced.

Symonds' association with the Prime Minister dates back to when she worked on his successful re-election bid at City Hall in 2012.

Meanwhile, many Conservative MPs took to Twitter to congratulate the couple, including Sajid Javid, who quit as chancellor earlier this month.