She had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Boris Johnson’s mother has died at the age of 79.
Charlotte Johnson Wahl passed away “suddenly and peacefully” at St Mary’s hospital in London on Monday, it has been announced in The Times newspaper.
Johnson Wahl was a professional painter, but had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease, making it difficult to do what she loved.
Senior figures from across the political spectrum have offered their condolences to the Prime Minister, who in 2019 described his mother as the “supreme authority” in his life.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted that he was “very sorry to learn of the Prime Minister’s loss,” with Conservative party chairwoman Amanda Milling saying that she was “thinking of Boris Johnson and his family.”
I’m very sorry to learn of the Prime Minister’s loss. My condolences to him and his family.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) September 13, 2021
Thinking of @BorisJohnson and his family this evening. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.
— Amanda Milling (@amandamilling) September 13, 2021
Boris Johnson’s mother had married his father, Stanley Johnson, in 1963, before going on to complete her degree and become the first married female undergraduate at her college at Oxford University.
Together the couple had four children – Boris, journalist Rachel, former minister Jo and environmentalist Leo – before divorcing in 1979.
Johnson Wahl made her name as a portrait painter and married American professor Nicholas Wahl in 1988. She moved to New York to live with him, but returned to London in 1996 following his death.
She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the age of 40, making it increasingly difficult to pursue her passion of painting, using a walking frame to steady herself as she worked.
In an interview in 2008, Johnson Wahl said: “I try to paint every day if I possibly can, though I have to go to the hospital a lot.
“I still manage to paint, though my arm will suddenly do a movement which is completely unintentional and that almost brings me to tears.”
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