Boris Johnson Finally Spills on How Many Kids He Has

British PM verifies he has 6 children, putting to bed years of rumors
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 22, 2021 7:41 AM CDT
Boris Johnson Finally Spills on How Many Kids He Has
In this Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, file photo, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is seen at 10 Downing Street, in London.   (Ben Stansall/Pool Photo via AP, File)

There's probably a Johnson joke in here somewhere, but we'll just give it to you straight: Boris Johnson has six kids. We can finally say that with authority, because the British prime minister has cleared up the details of what the Guardian calls his "notoriously complex family life," in an interview Tuesday with Savannah Guthrie on the Today show. And it was as simple as Guthrie, after first noting he'd become a father while in office, declaring, "You have six kids." To which Johnson responded: "Yes."

The six kids Johnson seems to be acknowledging include four adult children with his second wife, a daughter conceived during an extramarital relationship, and 16-month-old Wilfred, whom he shares with wife Carrie Johnson. The Washington Post notes that even that number may be not be telling the whole story, as Johnson has evaded a definitive answer "for years." Wikipedia notes in the section of Johnson's profile marked "children" that there are "6 confirmed, possibly more." Even someone who's plumbed the depths of Johnson's life is unsure.

"I can't claim to be [a] great source on how many children he has, and I am his biographer," Andrew Gimson, author of Boris: the Making of the Prime Minister, tells the Post. Before Guthrie grilled him on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Johnson was most recently asked the question in 2019, during his election campaign. "I love my children very much, but they are not standing at this election. I'm not therefore going to comment on them," he said at the time.

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At any rate, no matter how many kids he has, he seems to enjoy them. "It's fantastic," he told Guthrie when asked what it was like being a father. "It's a lot of work but ... I love it. I change a lot of nappies." It's a good thing he embraces daddy duty, because that now-known "six" is about to become a "seven": Johnson's wife is pregnant with their second child together. (More Boris Johnson stories.)

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