London Diplomatic Spouse Club

Embassy Network | 30th November 2017

Marina Wheeler join spouses for a DSCL group photo

Eszter Pataki and Ildiko Gulyás

Marina Wheeler meets Brendan Cody (Norway), DSCL member and List Master for the male diplomatic network

Marina Wheeler and Dr Beáta Margitay-Becht with members of the DSCL

Marina Wheeler chats to Viktorija Nikitine (Lithuania), Spivey Megumi (Japan) and Dr Beáta Margitay-Becht

Ratna Roshida Binti Abdul Razak (Malaysia), Selva Isik (Turkey) and Aseel Al Bayati (Iraq)

Ramune Muraliene (Lithuania), DSCL Chair Agnes Fenyvesy (Hungary) and Valentina Rupel (Slovenia)

Eszter Pataki, head of the Hungarian Cultural Centre, gives a whistlestop tour of Hungary’s highlights

Hungarian Deputy Head of Mission Dr Beáta Margitay-Becht addresses the guest speaker

Marina Wheeler takes questions from the audience

Emilia Atmanagara (Australia) poses a question

Mrs Shil Rhee, wife of the South Korean Ambassador and Mrs Yoko Tsuruoka, wife of the Japanese Ambassador

Boris’s better half
What is life like as the wife of the most recognisable politician in Britain? Members of the London Diplomatic Spouse Club got the opportunity to quiz Marina Wheeler, barrister, mother-offour and wife of Secretary of State Boris Johnson about Brexit and the challenges of family life with her husband in the full glare of British politics. Having a strong sense of your own identity (and humour!) was important to keeping a partnership strong, she told DSCL members.

Ms Wheeler amused spouses with tales of her first encounter with Boris (aged nine, when they were classmates in Brussels). Of British-Indian origin, Ms Wheeler’s insights into a mixed heritage upbringing and peripatetic life as the child of a BBC correspondent struck a chord with many spouses, as was her admiration for her trailblazing mother turned “trailing spouse”, who gave up work at the Canadian High Commission in Delhi to travel the world.

She congratulated the DSCL on taking the initiative to get started and said spouse organisations were a lifeline for diplomatic families worldwide.