Who is Petronella Wyatt, when did she have an affair with Boris Johnson and what has she said about the PM?

BORIS and Petronella's long-standing affair hit headlines in 2004 when she allegedly aborted his baby.

But just who is she and what does she think of the Prime Minister? Here's what we know...

Who is Petronella Wyatt?

Petronella Wyatt is a British journalist and author, and is around 50-years-old.

She is the daughter of the late Labour grandee Lord Wyatt and his fourth wife, Hungarian national Veronica (Verushka) Banszky von Ambroz.

Petronella was originally due to read History at Worcester College, Oxford, but quit after two weeks claiming she had been persistently harassed and bullied due to her personal Conservative political views.

She went on to graduate from University College London.

Petronella is now a weekly columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator, and currently writes political interviews and large features for the Daily Mail.

Known among friend as “Petsy”, she is known for her direct and playful interview style, and has appeared on both Question Time and Newsnight.

When did she have an affair with Boris?

The pair met when Boris Johnson was the editor of The Spectator, and Petronella was one of his columnists.

News of Petronella and Boris’s four-year affair hit the British press in 2004, during which time she had fallen pregnant and had an abortion.

Boris has even promised her during their affair that he would leave his wife for her.

Petronella’s mother found out about the affair and abortion, and reported it to the press.

The revelations cost Boris his job and he was sacked as shadow arts minister and Tory vice-chairman by then-Tory leader Michael Howard for lying about the affair.

Tory party officials claimed it was a matter of “personal morality”.

It has been suggested that Boris’ affair with Petronella overlapped with his affair with Anna Fazackerley, a journalist on the Times Educational Supplement.

What has Petronella said about Boris?

Boris’ former mistress has claimed he is a “loner” who has once moaned that “men should not be confined to one woman”.

She has previously written about how the larger-than-life ladies’ man is “inordinately proud of his Turkish ancestry” and claimed his “views on matters such as monogamy are decidedly Eastern”.

During their illicit affair, the author claims the MP said: “I find it genuinely unreasonable that men should be confined to one woman.”

She said: “Like many loners, he has a compensating need to be liked.”

Petronella added that Boris will do “anything to avoid an argument” which often results in him lying to his loved ones.

Despite his inordinate success with women, she claims Boris is not vain and “regards himself as rather ugly” relying on his charm to seduce the opposite sex.