Boris Johnson’s wild blonde hair made its way onto the front pages of newspapers around the world after he announced his support of a British exit from the EU. As mayor of London, Johnson’s quirky personality is almost as well known as former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, although in a much more legal way.
Here’s what you need to know about BoJo:
- Johnson is an American by birth. Born to English parents on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson retained his naturalized American citizenship until 2015. Last year Johnson paid off a mountain of taxes he owed the IRS as an American, and then promptly renounced his citizenship. (So yes, he could have been running for U.S. president too.)
- He’s also distantly related to the royal family. Johnson’s paternal grandmother, Yvonne Eileen Williams or “Granny Butter,” was a descendant of Prince Paul Von Wurttemberg, a German prince. Von Wurttemberg was a direct decedent of King George II, making Johnson related to all the royal houses of Europe, including the current English royal family, the Swedish, the Dutch, and the Russian Romanoffs. And, Johnson is an eighth-cousin to to Prime Minister David Cameron.
- Johnson says voters don’t care about his extra-marital affairs. Johnson married his first wife, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, in 1987 and divorced her in 1993. That same year he married his second wife, Marian Wheeler, which whom he has four children. In 2004, Johnson was forced to admit a four-year affair with journalist Petronella Wyatt, leading to his firing from his shadow cabinet spot. Just five years later, Johnson had a child with Helen Macintyre, an adviser to City Hall. In 2014 Johnson called his private life “irrelevant” to his job, and said he’d gotten enough voter support to show the public doesn’t really care about his sex life.
- Johnson is a journalist by trade. He was fired from his first job as a reporter for The Times for making up a quote from archaeologist Colin Lucas. Lucas also happens to be Johnson’s godfather. Johnson did bounce back, and has continued writing for various papers throughout his life.
- He’s also a novelist. BoJo has written several books, and published his first work of fiction in 2004. The novel, “Seventy-Two Virgins,” is a political comedy.
- Johnson may be vying for the prime minister’s job. Johnson’s backing of a Brexit puts him in contention with Cameron, and may be a strategic move to replace Cameron as Conservative party leader. Johnson once said his chances of becoming Prime Minister are “only slightly better than my chances of being decapitated by a Frisbee, blinded by a champagne cork, locked in a disused fridge or reincarnated as an olive.” But even Cameron thinks Johnson’s move is a veiled attempt to usurp him, and commented on Johnson’s “agenda” on Monday.
Photo: BackBoris2012 Campaign T