Boris Johnson wedding: How did the Prime Minister marry Carrie Symonds in a Catholic church?
BORIS Johnson wed Carrie Symonds in a top-secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral today. The PM and his bride invited their 30 guests at the last minute – days after sending out ‘save the date’ invitations for Saturday, July 30 2022. And the wedding was so secret that even some of the most senior aides at […]
BORIS Johnson wed Carrie Symonds in a top-secret ceremony at Westminster Cathedral today.
The PM and his bride invited their 30 guests at the last minute – days after sending out ‘save the date’ invitations for Saturday, July 30 2022.
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And the wedding was so secret that even some of the most senior aides at Downing Street had no idea about it.
Carrie is a practising Catholic, and the couple’s son Wilfred, one, was baptised at Westminster.
But how did Mr Johnson – who has now married three times – manage to have a wedding in a Catholic church?
The PM renounced Catholicism – his mother’s religion – when he was confirmed in the Anglican faith while at Eton, according to a biography.
In order to marry in a Catholic church, it’s possible Mr Johnson could have had his two previous marriages recognised as annulled.
However, some have speculated there may be a religious loophole – because he was baptised a Catholic, the Telegraph reports.
Mr Johnson is not known to have participated in Catholic ceremonies for his previous two marriages.
And that mean those marriages could be considered to have had a “lack of canonical form”.
It means they might be considered invalid by the church.
Little is known about the service itself – although little Wilfred was one of the guests in attendance, along with the PM’s father Stanley.
Boris and Carrie chose to tie the knot in London’s main Roman Catholic cathedral, just 1.5 miles from Downing Street.
Visiting tourists were blissfully unaware it was about to host the wedding of the year.
But shortly after 1.30pm, the church was suddenly cleared out. Staff told visitors the building was going into lockdown.
Half an hour later a limo carrying the bride swept into the piazza outside the main west door, just 300 yards from busy Victoria Station.
Carrie, 33, stepped out wearing a stunning long and flowing white dress. She chose not to wear a veil.
Bride and groom walked down the aisle to classical music and shared a kiss after the reading their vows.
Their year-old son Wilfred was there to see the happy occasion – along with two official witnesses.
One member of staff told The Sun: “Carrie looked beautiful. She had a long white dress with no veil. She looked made up.
“He was extremely happy as you can imagine, he looked very smart, and was in a very dapper suit.
“She came down the aisle and he didn’t take his eyes off her.
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“They read each other’s vows and then they shared a kiss.
“They looked besotted.”
Asked about the nuptials tonight, one No10 aide said: “I have been strictly told not to comment.”
Third time lucky for smitten PM
Carrie Symonds reportedly grew close to Boris Johnson in 2018 when he was then Foreign Secretary.
Marina Wheeler, then married to Boris, later filed for divorce.
In July 2019, Boris became PM – and both he and Carrie moved into 10 Downing Street.
She made her first public appearance after moving in on August 16 2019, when she addressed the “gigantic” climate crisis.
On February 29 2020, the couple announced they were engaged and expecting their first child.
Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson was born on April 29 2020 at University College Hospital in London.
It’s Carrie’s first wedding – and Boris’s third.
He tied the knot with first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1987.
That marriage was annulled in 1993 — the same year he married Marina Wheeler. The couple had four children but separated in 2018.
They formally divorced weeks before news emerged of Boris’s engagement to Carrie.
The only other PM to marry in office was Lord Liverpool who wed Mary Chester in 1822. His first wife Louisa, 54, died the previous year.
Boris is also thought to be the first PM to divorce in office since Augustus FitzRoy, the 3rd Duke of Grafton.