Boris’s Wife Gives Birth to Girl Day After PM Announces Covid Passes, Amidst Lockdown Scandal

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie have announced the birth of a baby girl.

The couple said a healthy baby, the couple’s second child together, was born in a London hospital early Thursday.

“Both mother and daughter are doing very well,” the couple’s office said in a statement. “The couple would like to thank the brilliant NHS maternity team for all their care and support.”

The baby is a sister for Wilfred, who was born in April 2020, weeks after the prime minister was treated in intensive care for the coronavirus.

The couple moved into 10 Downing St. together when Boris Johnson became prime minister in 2019, becoming the first unmarried couple to openly live together at the British prime minister’s official London residence.

Boris Johnson, now 57, and Carrie, who is 33, married in May 2021 at London’s Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral, in what is her first marriage and his third.

Johnson has at least five other children from previous relationships, including four with his second wife Marina Wheeler, from whom he is divorced. During a court hearing in 2013 it was disclosed that he had fathered a daughter during an affair when he was London mayor in 2009.

The new baby is the fourth born to a sitting British prime minister this century. The wives of leaders Tony Blair and David Cameron also had babies while their husbands were in office.

The baby arrived the day after the prime minister held a news conference to announce he was imposing restrictions including work-from-home advice and vaccine passes for crowded venues to try to slow the spread of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus.

He is also under pressure over alleged breaches of lockdown rules by government officials, including a Christmas party held in Downing Street in December 2020.