Boris Johnson: How many children does the prime minister have?

Prime minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie have welcomed their second child.

They announced the birth of a “healthy baby girl” at a London hospital earlier on Thursday.

A spokesperson for the couple said: “Both mother and daughter are doing very well. The couple would like to thank the brilliant NHS maternity team for all their care and support.”

The news comes after the prime minister has faced backlash this week due to accusations of a Christmas party in Downing Street last year that would have contravened coronavirus restrictions. Following leaked footage of the PM's then press secretary Allegra Stratton, in which she joked about an event with "no social distancing", Mr Johnson faced a grilling during Wednesday's PMQs and Stratton has since resigned.

In July, following the pregnancy announcement, Ms Johnson revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage earlier in the year, and felt “incredibly blessed to be pregnant again”.

“At the beginning of the year, I had a miscarriage which left me heartbroken,” she wrote. “I feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again but I’ve also felt like a bag of nerves.”

Opening up about her miscarriage, Ms Johnson said she had found comfort in speaking to others who had also experienced a similar loss.

“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 very small way sharing this might help others too,” she said.

The timing of her announcement suggests she was pregnant at the time of their wedding.

The couple were engaged in late 2019 and welcomed their first child, a son named Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, in April 2020. They married in an intimate wedding ceremony at Westminster Cathedral in May this year.

While the baby girl is Ms Johnson’s second child, Mr Johnson is more familiar with the experience of parenthood. However, the exact number of offspring the prime minister has remains unclear.

Here is everything you need to know about Mr Johnson’s children.

The youngest of Mr Johnson's children is his daughter with Carrie Johnson (nee Symonds), who was born on 9 December 2021.

The baby girl will be the younger sister to the pair’s son, Wilfred, who was born on 29 April 2020.

The couple first announced that they were expecting a child in February 2020 and told the public that the child would be born in the early summer.

It is believed that the prime minister has eight children, however, he has not officially confirmed the exact number.

What is known is that the prime minister and his second wife, Marina Wheeler, who separated in 2018, have four children together: Lara Lettice, 27, Milo Arthur, 25, Cassia Peaches, 23, and Theodore Apollo, 21.

Mr Johnson also has a fifth child, Stephanie Macintyre, who was fathered as a result of an affair with art consultant Helen Macintyre.

The Appeal Court ruled in 2013 that the public had a right to know that he had fathered a daughter during an adulterous liaison while Mayor of London in 2009.

“The core information in this story, namely that the father had an adulterous affair with the mother, deceiving both his wife and the mother’s partner and that the claimant, born about nine months later, was likely to be the father’s child, was a public interest matter which the electorate was entitled to know when considering his fitness for high public office,” the court said.

During the court proceedings, it was alleged that Stephanie Macintyre was one of two children the prime minister fathered as a result of an affair.

The three appeal court judges said: “It was not material to the judge's conclusion whether contraceptive precautions were taken.

“What was material was that the father's infidelities resulted in the conception of children on two occasions.”

Boris Johnson has famously diverted questions about his family and personal life, especially during the election campaign in 2019.

During a radio interview with LBC, presenter Nick Ferrari asked the prime minister how many children he had and if he was “fully involved” in their lives.

The prime minister responded: “I love my children very much but they are not standing at this election.

“I'm not therefore going to comment on them.”

He added: ”I am not going to put them onto the pitch in their election campaign when I think what people want to hear is what my plans are for the country, what this government is determined to do and how we are going to take this country forward.

“That is the way all parties should be judged.”