British leader Boris Johnson and his partner announce birth of boy
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, announced the birth of a son on Wednesday, just two days after Johnson returned to work following hospitalization for the coronavirus.
Johnson’s office said Symonds gave birth to a “healthy baby boy at a London hospital” on Wednesday morning, and both mother and son were doing well.
Johnson, 55, and Symonds, 32, announced in February that they were engaged and expecting a child together. At the time they said the baby was due in early summer.
Johnson only returned to work Monday after suffering from a bout of coronavirus that left him dangerously ill. He spent a week in a London hospital, including three nights in intensive care, before recovering for two weeks away from London.
The British prime minister’s office said he would be back at 10 Downing St. on Monday, two weeks after being hospitalized with the coronavirus infection.
Symonds also said she was sick for a week with COVID-19 symptoms, though she wasn’t tested for the virus. The newborn boy is her first child.
Johnson has four children with his second wife, Marina Wheeler, from whom he is divorced, and has fathered at least one other child outside his marriages. He has consistently refused to say how many children he has fathered.
The baby is the third 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.
Johnson had been due to return to Parliament on Wednesday to take part in the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who had deputized for Johnson during his illness, will stand in again for him.
One of Boris Johnson’s nurses said caring for the coronavirus-stricken British leader didn’t faze her because of her experience in intensive care.
House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle congratulated the couple.
“Such happy news amid so much uncertainty — 2020 is certainly a year they will never forget,” he said.
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