Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s fiancée Carrie Symonds today gave birth to a ‘healthy’ baby boy at a London hospital – weeks earlier than anticipated.
Mr Johnson is said to have been by his 32-year-old fiancee’s side throughout the labour in the early hours of this morning and thanked ‘the fantastic NHS maternity team’ who brought their son into the world.
The safe arrival of their child, Carrie’s first and officially Boris’s sixth, has come as a shock because Miss Symonds was expected to give birth later in the summer, although a due date was never confirmed by the couple.
They got engaged while holidaying on the exclusive Caribbean island of Mustique over the new year and announced they would marry and were having a baby on February 29, days after the PM’s divorce from Marina Wheeler went through.
ALSO READ: UCH manages COVID-19 patient from home, records no new case in 2 days
Announcing the birth of their son, who has not been named yet, his spokesperson said: ‘The Prime Minister and Ms Symonds are thrilled to announce the birth of a healthy baby boy at a London hospital earlier this morning. Both mother and baby are doing very well. The PM and Ms Symonds would like to thank the fantastic NHS maternity team.’
It was not revealed the hospital they went to – although St Thomas’, where Mr Johnson was in intensive care this month, is the closest to Downing Street. It was previously reported that Carrie had wanted a home birth but these have largely been suspended by the NHS because of coronavirus.
Mr Johnson said in early March that he would likely take his two-week paternity leave when their child was born – but it appears unlikely he will take a fortnight off now, at a time of national emergency. There are also concerns that key decisions over the coronavirus lockdown and how to ease Britain out of it will be delayed because of the Prime Minister’s new baby.
The birth came after an extraordinary month for the couple, who were self-isolating separately, first because of Carrie’s pregnancy and then when Boris fell ill. Mr Johnson then spent a week in hospital, including three days in intensive care, and Miss Symonds was also briefly bedridden with symptoms of Covid-19, but made a full recovery. They were only reunited last week at Chequers before she went into labour.
DAILY MAIL