LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson married his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, in a small private ceremony that took place at the end of a tumultuous week in which a former senior official said he did not was not fit to perform his duties.

The couple tied the knot on Saturday at Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral in front of a small group of friends and family, Johnson’s office said on Sunday, confirming newspaper reports published overnight. Photos taken after the ceremony in the garden of the Prime Minister’s residence showed Symonds in a long white gown and a floral headband. Johnson wore a dark suit.

“The Prime Minister and Mrs Symonds got married yesterday afternoon in a small ceremony at Westminster Cathedral,” Downing Street said. “The couple will celebrate their wedding with family and friends next summer.”

The couple are said to have sent reservation cards to family and friends for a celebration on July 30, 2022. Under current coronavirus restrictions in England, no more than 30 people can attend a wedding.

Johnson, 56, and Symonds, a 33-year-old Conservative Party insider and conservationist, announced their engagement in February 2020. Their son, Wilfred, was born in April of last year.

The marriage is Johnson’s third. He has at least five other children from previous relationships.

Johnson’s previous marriages would not have prevented him from having a Catholic wedding because they had not taken place in the Catholic Church, Matt Chinery, a church lawyer and canonist, told Times Radio.

“In the eyes of the Catholic Church, Boris Johnson woke up last week as someone who was not married and had never been married and therefore was free to marry in the cathedral this weekend “, did he declare.

Johnson was baptized a Catholic, but was confirmed as a member of the Church of England as a teenager.

The last British Prime Minister to marry in office was Lord Liverpool in 1822.

The marriage followed a difficult political week for Johnson.

His former senior aide, Dominic Cummings, told lawmakers on Wednesday that Johnson messed up the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and said he was “unfit for the job”.

Britain has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe, with more than 128,000 people, but it has also produced one of the most successful vaccination programs in the world, inoculating 74% of its adults. Daily deaths have fallen to single digits of late, from more than 1,800 a day in January.

A government ethics counselor released his long-awaited findings on the ‘cash for curtains’ scandal in which Johnson was criticized for failing to reveal that a wealthy Conservative Party donor paid for the home’s redecorating on Friday. Prime Minister’s official in London. Although Johnson later settled the bill, the investigation found Johnson acted “recklessly” in carrying out the work without knowing where the money was coming from. He was cleared of any fault.

The opposition Labor Party was leaving Johnson no space for a honeymoon, with Labor lawmaker Jon Trickett suggesting the weekend wedding was ‘a good way to bury this week’s bad news’.

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