Marina Wheeler

Last updated

Marina Wheeler
KC
Born
Marina Claire Wheeler

(1964-08-18) 18 August 1964 (age 59)
West Berlin (now Berlin, Germany)
NationalityBritish
Education
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Barrister
  • writer
  • columnist
Known for
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1993;div. 2020)​
Children4, including Lara [1]
Parent

Marina Claire Wheeler KC (born 18 August 1964) is a British lawyer and writer. As a barrister, she specialises in public law, including human rights, and is a member of the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal. She was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2016. [2]

Contents

She is the author of The Lost Homestead: My Mother, Partition and the Punjab (2020) and is an ex-wife of former British prime minister Boris Johnson.

Early life and education

Marina Claire Wheeler was born in West Berlin on 18 August 1964, to Charles Wheeler, a BBC correspondent, and his second wife Dip Singh, an Indian Punjabi Sikh. [3] Her elder sister is Shirin Wheeler. [3]

Wheeler was educated at Bedales School and then the European School of Brussels, and then in the early 1980s at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where she wrote for the student magazine Cantab . [4] [5] [6]

At the European School, she became friendly with Boris Johnson, later a journalist and politician. [7]

Career

After Cambridge, Wheeler returned to Brussels and worked there for four years. In 1987, she was called to the Bar, practising from chambers in London at One Crown Office Row. In her work as a barrister, Wheeler specialises in mental health matters and discrimination claims. In January 2004, she was appointed to the B-Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown. [8] In 2009, she joined the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal as a barrister member. [9]

Of her legal work, Wheeler has stated:

My own experience, shared by many colleagues, is that a high proportion of discrimination cases we deal with are ill-founded. One colleague puts the figure at more than 60 per cent... Many unregulated advisors make a living bringing discrimination claims, and they do not always seem to have the best interests of the Applicant in mind. [10]

In February 2016, she was appointed Queen's Counsel. [11]

In October 2023 she was announced as the Labour Party's advisor on protecting women from workplace sexual harassment and discrimination. [12]

Personal life

On 8 May 1993, a pregnant Wheeler married her childhood friend Boris Johnson, whose previous marriage had ended 12 days earlier. [13] Together they have four children, including Lara Lettice, [5] [14] their eldest child born 12 June 1993. [13]

In September 2018, Johnson and Wheeler issued a statement confirming that after 25 years of marriage, they had separated "several months ago" and begun divorce proceedings. [15] They reached a financial settlement in February 2020, [16] and the divorce was finalised in 2020. [17]

In August 2019, Wheeler revealed that she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer earlier in the year and had undergone two operations to be in remission. [18]

Memoirs

In 2020 her memoir The Lost Homestead: My Mother, Partition and the Punjab , detailing her family's history in India, was published. [19] Her ancestry goes back to the city of Sargodha in West Punjab, present-day Pakistan, with her maternal family migrating to present-day India after the Partition of India. [20] [21] It was shortlisted for the 2021 RSL Christopher Bland Prize. [22]

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References

  1. ↑ Beck, Laycie (5 December 2021). "Complicated love life: Meet Boris Johnson' six children and two ex-wives". Unifresher. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  2. ↑ Williams, Zoe (22 January 2016). "New QCs Justine Thornton and Marina Wheeler: Is the legal profession still sexist?". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  3. 1 2 Wheeler, Marina (2020). The Lost Homestead: My Mother, Partition and the Punjab. London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 139. ISBN   978-1-4736-7774-6. OCLC   1147952565.
  4. ↑ Sir Charles Wheeler (obituary) at telegraph.co.uk
  5. 1 2 "Family of influence behind Boris Johnson". The Daily Telegraph. 3 May 2008. Archived from the original on 10 August 2009.
  6. ↑ Amit Roy, Boris gets on his bike from The Telegraph of Calcutta , 11 May 2008.
  7. ↑ Brian Wheeler, The Boris Johnson story dated 4 May 2008 at news.bbc.co.uk
  8. ↑ "One Crown Office Row - Barrister Details". Archived from the original on 6 May 2008. Retrieved 4 May 2008.
  9. ↑ "Marina Wheeler" (PDF). 1cor.com.
  10. ↑ "One Crown Office Row - Article". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  11. ↑ "Guardian Legal Network". Inforrm.wordpress.com. 11 January 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  12. ↑ "Boris Johnson's ex-wife Marina Wheeler is Labour's sex harassment adviser". BBC News. 8 October 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  13. 1 2 Andy McSmith (13 February 2016). "Marina Wheeler, profile: The brains behind Boris Johnson". The Independent . Retrieved 31 May 2021. The Mayor's wife couldn't be more different from her husband – but are they on the same side of the EU debate?
  14. ↑ Wheeler, Brian (4 May 2008). "The Boris Johnson story". BBC News. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  15. ↑ "Boris Johnson and wife to divorce". BBC News. 7 September 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  16. ↑ Ames, Jonathan (18 February 2020). "PM reaches financial settlement with estranged wife" . The Times. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  17. ↑ Simpson, Annabel (6 May 2020). "Marina Wheeler opens up about life post-Boris Johnson". Tatler. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  18. ↑ Moore, Matthew (12 August 2019). "I put off test that spotted my cervical cancer, says Boris Johnson's wife Marina Wheeler". The Times.
  19. ↑ Wheeler, Marina (2020). The Lost Homestead: My Mother, Partition and the Punjab. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN   978-1-4736-7774-6. OCLC   1147952565.
  20. ↑ Murtaza Ali Shah (2 May 2015). "London Mayor, wife wish to visit 'amazing' Pakistan | World". Geo.tv. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  21. ↑ "London mayor, wife wish to visit Pakistan soon – The Express Tribune". Tribune.com.pk. 3 May 2015. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  22. ↑ "RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2021 – Shortlist announced". Royal Society of Literature. 17 May 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
Unofficial roles
Preceded by Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
De jure
2019–2020		Vacant
Title next held by
Carrie Johnson
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