Boris Johnson has welcomed his ninth child with wife Carrie – a baby girl named Poppy Eliza Josephine. The newborn joins a famously quirky brood with names as bold and eclectic as their dad
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has welcomed his ninth child, and the newest addition to his already large brood has a name as charmingly quirky as her siblings.
Boris and wife Carrie Johnson have announced the birth of their fourth child, daughter, Poppy Eliza Josephine, calling her the couple’s “final gang member”. Sharing the news on Instagram, Carrie gushed: “I can’t believe how pretty and tiny you are. Feel so incredibly lucky. We are all totally smitten.”
The newborn joins siblings Wilf, Romy, and Frank, whose names have attracted attention for their eccentric flair, much like Boris himself. Boris is not new to parenthood. The 60-year-old discussed the number of children he’d fathered during a 2021 interview on the Today Show, saying: “It’s fantastic, it’s fantastic, it’s a lot of work, I’ll tell you that much, but I love it, I absolutely love it. And I change a lot of nappies, in case anybody… I do.”
With four children from his marriage to Marina Wheeler, one from an affair in 2009, and now four with Carrie, here’s a look at the full line-up of Johnson juniors and the unusual names behind them.
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Lara Lettice
Johnson and Marina’s oldest child was conceived ahead of their wedding in 1993. Lara, 32, uses the double-barrelled surname Johnson-Wheeler, with the second being her mum’s surname. She went to the £33,000-a-year Bedales school before earning a place at St Andrews University where she studied Latin.
She now works as a journalist, writer, editor and broadcaster and lives in London. She specialises in arts and fashion criticism and has been published in Vogue. Her website states: “Johnson-Wheeler is open to and has experience in public speaking, chairing panel discussions and debates.” At 32, she is just five years younger than her dad’s wife, Carrie. At the time of her parents’ split, the Sun reported that Lara called her dad a “selfish b*stard”. She reportedly said: “Mum is finished with him. She will never take him back now.”
Milo Arthur
Milo, 30, is Boris and Marina’s oldest son and a keen sportsman. He went to Westminster School, which costs about £27,000 a year. He studied at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and can speak Arabic, Russian, and French. After his parents’ split, Milo was photographed helping his mum clear out their Highgate home. Removal vehicles were spotted outside the central London property, with Marina Wheeler and Milo seen removing rubbish from the property.
Cassia Peaches
Cassia Peaches is 27 years old and studied at Highgate School, which costs about £18,000 a year. Like her dad and older sister, she is a writer and was a student editor for her school’s alumni magazine. Boris’ second-oldest daughter then went on to study at Trinity College in Dublin.
Theodore Johnson-Wheeler
Theo is Boris and Marina’s youngest child, now 25, and goes by both of his parents’ surnames. He attended a private school and went to Cambridge University—the rival of his dad’s Oxford—after attending a private school. He was spotted working at a Hackney restaurant in 2022, where his dad was booed on a visit during the late Queen’s Jubilee weekend. He was working at Morito, a trendy tapas and mezze restaurant in East London, but he is no longer believed to be there.
Mr Johnson responded to the heckles with a dismissive hand gesture before exiting the venue. “He flicked his finger at the customers when he got booed,” a source told the Mail. “It was horrible, it just created a nasty atmosphere.”
Theo, who shares his father’s distinctive shock of blonde hair, no longer works at the restaurant. He left shortly after Boris’s visit, though this is thought to be unrelated. According to the Mail on Sunday, he has embraced his family’s fame – reportedly writing a play about the Brexit referendum and his dad’s role in the campaign at uni.
Stephanie Macintyre
Stephanie was born in 2009 through Johnson’s affair with property developer Helen Macintyre. Helen tried to keep their child a secret and even launched legal action against a newspaper to prevent them from publishing a report. Stephanie will now be 15 or 16 depending on her birthday.
However, last year, Johnson’s dad, Stanley, appeared to acknowledge her place in the family, saying he had spoken to her over video call and hoped to meet his grandchildren. “Fourteen includes Stephanie – that’s the point,” he said. “I am particularly pleased to include Stephanie.” However, judges ruled the public had a right to know about Boris’s daughter. It is understood that Stephanie has very little to do with her dad or her half-siblings.
Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas
Boris and Carrie welcomed their first child, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas – now 5 – at a London hospital on April 29, 2020. Johnson’s ex, Marina, was said to be extremely upset by the news. A source said: “Marina has had a tough year with her health scare and the divorce, and is very worried about how the kids are handling it too. She’s just in pieces over it all.”
Sources say their four grown-up kids are “furious” at Mr Johnson over his relationship with Carrie – who at 37 is 24 years his junior. They are said to have barely met her and believe she started seeing him while he was still living with their mum.
Romy Iris Charlotte
Back in July 2021, Carrie and Boris announced they were expecting another child. Sharing their happy news, Carrie also revealed she suffered a miscarriage at the beginning of the year, which left her “heartbroken.” She wrote: “I feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again, but I’ve also felt like a bag of nerves. Fertility issues can be really hard for many people, particularly when on platforms like Instagram, it can look like everything is only ever going well.
“I found it a real comfort to hear from people who had also experienced loss, so I hope that in some small way sharing this might help others, too.” But they announced the birth of a healthy baby girl at a London hospital on 9 December 2021 and later revealed that they named her Romy Iris Charlotte Johnson. Romy would now be 3 years old.
Frank Alfred Odysseus
In July 2023, Carrie and Boris announced they had welcomed a third child into the world. Posting on Instagram, Carrie wrote: “Welcome to the world Frank Alfred Odysseus Johnson born 5th July at 9.15 am. (Can you guess which name my husband chose?!) Am loving every minute of the sleepy baby bubble. Seeing my older two embrace their new brother with such joy and excitement has been the most wonderful thing to see. We are all very smitten.”
She added: “Thank you so much to the incredible NHS maternity team at UCLH. They really are the most amazing, caring people. I feel such immense gratitude. Now, can anyone recommend any good series/box sets to binge while breastfeeding? Time for a drink.” Frank will be 2 in July.
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