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Reuters

Boris Johnson, Britain’s former top diplomat, said on Friday he had separated from his wife Marina Wheeler and the couple will divorce, the Press Association reported.
Johnson is the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May and is seen as someone who would lead Britain to a more radical departure from the European Union after being the figurehead of the “Leave” campaign in 2016.

In a joint statement, Johnson and Wheeler said they separated some time ago and divorce proceedings had started. Johnson’s former adviser confirmed that a statement had been issued to the Press Association.
The statement came after The Sun newspaper ran a front-page story saying the couple, who have four children, had separated.
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“Several months ago, after 25 years of marriage, we decided it was in our best interests to separate. We have subsequently agreed to divorce and that process is under way,” the statement said, according to the Press Association.
Reuters tried to contact Johnson, a former mayor of London, directly through phone calls to his office and by email.

Johnson is one of the most recognisable figures in British politics thanks to his shock of blonde hair and colourful turn of phrase. Advocates of Brexit say he is the man who should succeed May, and he is popular with the party’s grass roots.
“He’s still the favourite,” said bookmaker William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly, referring to the odds of Johnson being the party’s next leader. “Over the years Boris has been very Teflon … we think he’s got more than a couple of lives left yet.”
Brace yourselves for Britain’s Trump as the next prime minister
Johnson served as foreign minister under May for two years until July, when he quit in protest at her Brexit negotiating strategy, saying it would leave Britain as a “colony” of the European Union.
Since then, he has repeatedly criticised the strategy in parliament and through his regular newspaper column.

May’s future and the direction the country will take at its most significant strategic juncture since the end of the second world war are subject to intense scrutiny as Britain enters the final phases of Brexit negotiations before it leaves the EU in March 2019.
Listen to Russian pranksters’ phone call with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson
Her plan has little support in Brussels, which says she needs to agree to further concessions to make it work, and within her party, where Eurosceptics say she has already conceded too much ground by seeking a “common rule book” to permit free trade in goods.
“I think if the government was to fall then he would probably prosper at the point of maximum chaos but if she gets through Brexit I cannot see him becoming leader,” Giles Kenningham, a former adviser to ex-prime minister David Cameron, told Sky News.


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Britain

Former British foreign secretary Boris Johnson and wife ‘will divorce’

Boris Johnson with his wife Marina Wheeler during the British general election in May, 2015. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday June 23, 2016, British MP Boris Johnson and his wife Marina, are photographed after voting in the EU Brexit referendum in London. Johnson and his wife have issued a joint statement Friday Sept. 7, 2018, that they separated some time ago and are now in the process of divorcing. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, FILE)

FILE PHOTO: Marina Wheeler, the wife of London Mayor Boris Johnson leaves their home in London, Britain February 22, 2016. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo

A video grab from footage broadcast by the UK Parliament's Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) shows Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May as she makes a statement to MPs in the House of Commons in London on September, 2018, on the progress of the police investigation into the March 4 nerve agent attack in Salisbury, on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. - British prosecutors said Wednesday they have a European arrest warrant for two Russians suspected of a nerve agent attack on a former spy in the city of Salisbury. Police identified Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov as the men who allegedly tried to kill Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with Novichok in March. (Photo by HO / various sources / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT " AFP PHOTO / PRU " - NO USE FOR ENTERTAINMENT, SATIRICAL, MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

Boris Johnson breaks ranks with Brexit ‘vassal state’ warning

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson at a press conference at the National Maritime Museum in London. Photo: EPA

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond attends the UK-China Economic Financial Dialogue at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on December 16, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / FRED DUFOUR

Theresa May, U.K. prime minister, leaves after attending a European Union (EU) leaders summit at the Europa Building in Brussels, Belgium, early on Friday, Dec. 15, 2017. May asked European leaders to be creative and to persevere to reach a deal when Brexit negotiations move on to trade. Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg

Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (L) and Japanese counterpart Foreign Minister Taro Kono give a joint press conference at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London on December 14, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Kirsty Wigglesworth

Boris Johnson caught reciting colonial poem in Myanmar temple

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon on January 21, 2017. Photo: AFP

Buddhist devotees visit Myanmar's famous Shwedagon Pagoda during the full moon day of Waso, the fourth month of Myanmar calendar and the beginning of Buddhist Lent, Friday, July 31, 2015, in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

epa06235615 (FILE) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (C) visits the Yangon General Hospital in Yangon, Myanmar, 21 January 2017 (reissued 30 September 2017). According to news reports on 30 September 2017, Johnson had allegedly recited a part of colonial era poem while during an official part of his visit to Myanmar in January, sparking criticism. EPA-EFE/NYEIN CHAN NAING / POOL

China tells UK to back off after Boris Johnson warns of Beijing's increasing influence over Hong Kong

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says the British government has consistently raised its concerns about the ‘one country, two systems’ policy with Chinese and Hong Kong authorities. Photo: EPA/ Neil Hall

Aerial view of the construction site of the West Kowloon High Speed Rail Terminus. 02FEB18 SCMP / Roy Issa

News

World

Europe

The couple, who have been married for 25 years and have four children, are said to have been separated for some time


The couple, who have been married for 25 years and have four children, are said to have been separated for some time.


Brexit

Theresa May

Former British foreign secretary Boris Johnson and wife ‘will divorce’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The couple, who have been married for 25 years and have four children, are said to have been separated for some time

The couple, who have been married for 25 years and have four children, are said to have been separated for some time