Carrie Johnson

Caroline Louise Beavan Johnson (née Symonds; born 17 March 1988) is an English media consultant, a senior advisor to the ocean conservation charity Oceana, and a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation. She is married to politician Boris Johnson, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. Born to Matthew Symonds, co-founder of The Independent, and Josephine McAfee, a lawyer, Symonds was raised by her mother in southwest London. Educated at Godolphin and Latymer School and the University of Warwick, she earned a degree in Art History and Theatre Studies. She began working as a press officer for the Conservative Party in 2009 and rose to become the party's head of communications in 2018. In the same year, she began an affair with Johnson, then serving as Foreign Secretary, during his marriage to his second wife, Marina Wheeler. Later that year, Symonds left her role with the Conservative Party for a public relations job at Oceana. Johnson and Wheeler separated in September 2018, and Johnson was later reported to be living with Symonds at her flat in southeast London. In July 2019, after Johnson became Prime Minister, she moved with him to the flat above 11 Downing Street, making her the first unmarried partner of a Prime Minister to officially reside in Downing Street. In February 2020, shortly after Johnson agreed a divorce settlement with Wheeler, Symonds announced that she and Johnson had become engaged in late 2019 and that she was pregnant. She gave birth to their first child in April 2020. In January 2021, she began working in a senior communications role at the Aspinall Foundation, a wildlife charity. She and Johnson married in May 2021 at Westminster Cathedral, and subsequently had three more children together.