Marina Wheeler

{{Short description|British lawyer, writer and columnist (born 1964)}}

{{Infobox person

| name =

| honorific_suffix = {{postnom|country=UK|size=100%|KC}}

| image =

| known_for = *Queen's Counsel (2016)

Spouse of the prime minister of the United Kingdom (2019–2020)
Author of The Lost Homestead: My Mother, Partition and the Punjab (2020)

| birth_name = Marina Claire Wheeler

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1964|12|05}}

| birth_place = West Berlin (now Berlin, Germany)

| nationality = British

| party =

| spouse = {{marriage|Boris Johnson|1993|2020|end=divorced}}

| children = 4{{cite web |last1=Beck |first1=Laycie |title=Complicated love life: Meet Boris Johnson' six children and two ex-wives |url=https://unifresher.co.uk/complicated-love-life-meet-boris-johnsons-six-children-and-two-ex-wives/ |website=Unifresher |date=5 December 2021 |access-date=24 December 2021}}

| father = Charles Wheeler

| education = *Bedales School

European School, Brussels

| alma_mater = {{plainlist|

}}

| occupation = {{hlist|Barrister|writer|columnist}}

}}

Marina Claire Wheeler {{postnom|country=UK|KC}} (born 5 December 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.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/jan/22/women-qcs-justine-thornton-marina-wheeler-is-legal-profession-still-sexist|title=New QCs Justine Thornton and Marina Wheeler: Is the legal profession still sexist?|last=Williams|first=Zoe|date=22 January 2016|work=The Guardian|access-date=25 January 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

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 5 December 1964, to Charles Wheeler, a BBC correspondent, and his second wife Dip Singh, an Indian Punjabi Sikh.{{Cite book|last=Wheeler|first=Marina|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1147952565|title=The Lost Homestead: My Mother, Partition and the Punjab|date=2020|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|isbn=978-1-4736-7774-6|location=London|language=English|oclc=1147952565|page=139}} Her elder sister is Shirin Wheeler.

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.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080705151419/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2246935/Charles-Wheeler.html Sir Charles Wheeler] (obituary) at telegraph.co.uk{{cite news|date=3 May 2008|title=Family of influence behind Boris Johnson|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/borisjohnson/1924866/London-mayor-elections-2008-Family-of-influence-behind-Boris-Johnson.html|url-status=dead|work=The Daily Telegraph|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090810000624/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/borisjohnson/1924866/London-mayor-elections-2008-Family-of-influence-behind-Boris-Johnson.html|archive-date=10 August 2009}}Amit Roy, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110604142215/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080511/jsp/7days/story_9254821.jsp Boris gets on his bike] from The Telegraph of Calcutta, 11 May 2008.

At the European School, she became friendly with Boris Johnson, later a journalist and politician.Brian Wheeler, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7376621.stm The Boris Johnson story] dated 4 May 2008 at news.bbc.co.uk

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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.1cor.com/1144/?form_668.replyids=48 |title=One Crown Office Row - Barrister Details |access-date=4 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506061256/http://www.1cor.com/1144/?form_668.replyids=48 |archive-date=6 May 2008 |url-status=dead }} In 2009, she joined the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal as a barrister member.{{cite web|url=http://www.1cor.com/668/records/48/Marina%20Wheeler%20PDF%20CV.pdf|title=Marina Wheeler|website=1cor.com}}

Of her legal work, Wheeler has stated: {{blockquote|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.{{Cite web |url=http://www.1cor.com/1158/?form_1155.replyids=19 |title=One Crown Office Row - Article |access-date=12 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707061158/http://www.1cor.com/1158/?form_1155.replyids=19 |archive-date=7 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}}}

In February 2016, she was appointed Queen's Counsel.{{cite web|url=https://inforrm.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/news-queens-counsel-appointments-media-lawyers-take-silk/ |title=Guardian Legal Network |website=Inforrm.wordpress.com |date=11 January 2016 |access-date=25 July 2019}}

In October 2023 she was announced as the Labour Party's advisor on protecting women from workplace sexual harassment and discrimination.{{cite web |title=Boris Johnson's ex-wife Marina Wheeler is Labour's sex harassment adviser |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67043606 |website=BBC News |access-date=8 October 2023 |date=8 October 2023}}

Personal life

On 8 May 1993, a pregnant Wheeler married her childhood friend Boris Johnson, whose previous marriage had ended 12 days earlier.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/marina-wheeler-profile-the-brains-behind-boris-johnson-a6871006.html|title=Marina Wheeler, profile: The brains behind Boris Johnson|quotation=The Mayor’s wife couldn’t be more different from her husband – but are they on the same side of the EU debate?|date=13 February 2016| author=Andy McSmith|work=The Independent|access-date=31 May 2021}} Together they have four children.{{cite news|last=Wheeler|first=Brian|date=4 May 2008|title=The Boris Johnson story|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7376621.stm|work=BBC News|access-date=1 August 2021}}

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.{{cite news |title=Boris Johnson and wife to divorce |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45446254 |work=BBC News|access-date=10 September 2018 |date=7 September 2018}} They reached a financial settlement in February 2020,{{cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/pm-reaches-financial-settlement-with-estranged-wife-g8dxvg878 |title=PM reaches financial settlement with estranged wife |first=Jonathan |last=Ames |work=The Times |date=18 February 2020 |url-access=subscription |access-date=16 April 2020}} and the divorce was finalised in 2020.{{cite magazine|last=Simpson|first=Annabel|date=6 May 2020|title=Marina Wheeler opens up about life post-Boris Johnson|url=https://www.tatler.com/article/boris-johnson-marina-wheeler-divorce-granted-free-to-marry-carrie|magazine=Tatler|access-date=25 July 2023}}

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.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/i-put-off-test-that-spotted-my-cervical-cancer-says-pm-s-wife-qdnzt7mm3|title=I put off test that spotted my cervical cancer, says Boris Johnson's wife Marina Wheeler|work=The Times|date=12 August 2019|last1=Moore|first1=Matthew}}

Memoirs

In 2020 her memoir The Lost Homestead: My Mother, Partition and the Punjab, detailing her family's history in India, was published.{{Cite book|last=Wheeler|first=Marina|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1147952565|title=The Lost Homestead: My Mother, Partition and the Punjab|date=2020|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|isbn=978-1-4736-7774-6|location=London|language=English|oclc=1147952565}} 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.{{cite web|author=Murtaza Ali Shah |url=http://www.geo.tv/article-183472-London-Mayor-wife-wish-to-visit-amazing-Pakistan |title=London Mayor, wife wish to visit 'amazing' Pakistan | World |website=Geo.tv |date=2 May 2015 |access-date=24 July 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/880168/london-mayor-wife-wish-to-visit-pakistan-soon/ |title=London mayor, wife wish to visit Pakistan soon – The Express Tribune |website=Tribune.com.pk |date= 3 May 2015|access-date=24 July 2016}} It was shortlisted for the 2021 RSL Christopher Bland Prize.{{Cite web|date=17 May 2021|title=RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2021 – Shortlist announced|url=https://rsliterature.org/2021/05/rsl-christopher-bland-prize-2021-shortlist-announced/|access-date=25 June 2021|website=Royal Society of Literature|language=en-GB}}