The band’s repertoire includes one of Mr Johnson’s favorite songs, Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl. The prime minister told the BBC’s Desert Island Discs in 2005 that “you can have too much of Van Morrison,” but named the “happy” song as one of his favorites. Coincidentally, it’s the color of his new wife’s eyes.
The guests left number 10 later that evening. Among them was the passionate remainer Hugo Dixon, who has known Mr Johnson since his days together in Eton.
His golden vest appearance at the wedding came as a bit of a surprise as he wrote an open letter to Mr Johnson in the Guardian in 2019 asking him to stop Brexit and noting that they were in part “aloof” because of their views on it leaving the EU.
With the couple only having 30 guests, there were some notable absences, including John Whittingdale, for whom Ms. Johnson worked as a cultural advisor as a special adviser. Sajid Javid, another former Tory cabinet minister whom Ms. Johnson advised when they were seated on the front bench, also did not attend the wedding.
It has been speculated that Ms. Johnson’s friend Dixie Maloney, a corporate event organizer, planned the day.
Downing Street aides were just as shocked as the public when they discovered that their boss had married. “It was a total surprise, completely unexpected,” said a number 10 advisor, who had been in the building the day before and saw no evidence of the impending wedding.
“There were no deliveries. I don’t remember any signs of preparation. It was all choreographed in such a way that there were no freebies, ”source number 10 told The Telegraph.
They added that they had “utter admiration” for how successfully the event was kept under wraps, adding, “It was a great example of forward planning.
Dapper PM far from his first wedding
Mr. Johnson looked elegant in a dark lounge suit and Tory blue silk tie – though still characteristically wobbly – in the first pictures of his wedding to Miss Symonds.
The picture is far from how he arrived at his first wedding to Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1987 – without pants or shoes.
Ms. Mostyn-Owen, daughter of the Italian writer Gaia Sevadio and the art historian William Mostyn-Owen, and Mr. Johnson met at Oxford University. They were just 23 years old when they got married.
The ceremony was held at the Miss Mostyn-Owens family home in Shropshire, Woodhouse, a Class II land pile.
Mr Johnson had to borrow pants and cufflinks from John Biffen, a former Tory minister, after his wardrobe was faulty. But Mr Biffen’s shoes didn’t fit, so the groom reportedly had no choice but to wear his own, shabbier pair.
The disasters kept coming back on the wedding day as he reportedly misplaced the ring and lost the wedding certificate, which was later discovered in the pocket of the borrowed trousers.
During his speech, Mr. Johnson was harassed by a guest after he misquoted English author PG Wodehouse.
Ms. Mostyn-Owen reportedly said the wedding was the “end of the relationship rather than the beginning”. The couple divorced after six years.
Mr Johnson married Marina Wheeler, his second wife, just weeks after the divorce. The couple had been childhood friends and had attended the European School in Brussels together.
They were married on May 8, 1993 in Horsham, Sussex Town Hall, near Mrs. Wheeler’s childhood home. There were close relatives on the guest list and about five or six friends each.
Ms. Wheeler was seriously pregnant with the couple’s first child at their wedding and gave birth the following month. They had four children together: Lara Lettice, Milo Arthur, Cassia Peaches and Theodore Apollo.
They honeymooned at a hotel in East Grinstead for one night before returning to Brussels, where they were living at the time.
The couple had been married for more than 25 years before announcing their divorce in 2018, which was finalized two years later.