The PM has finally confirmed he is a father of six today as he offered a glimpse into his murky private life.
He has been married three times, with each ending in divorce after he had an affair with his future wife.
The PM has a son, Wilfred, with third wife Carrie Johnson and four with his second wife Marina Wheeler. He also has a daughter from an affair in 2009.
He has never previously agreed put a figure on the size of his personal brood in public.
Speaking to the Today morning show, he was asked if he was a father of six, replying, ‘yes’.
He said: ‘It’s fantastic. It’s a lot of work, I’ll tell you that much.
‘But I love it, I absolutely love it. I change a lot of nappies.’
There has been confusion about the number of children Mr Johnson has fathered.
He has four children with ex-wife Marina Wheeler, but he also has a child, born in 2009, as a result of an affair with art consultant Helen Macintyre.
At first he denied paternity and even sought an injunction in 2013 to prevent her existence being discovered during a court battle.
But the confusion sprang from the proceedings where it was alleged that Mr Johnson may have fathered two children as a result of the affair.
The judgment read: “What was material was that the father’s infidelities resulted in the conception of children on two occasions.”
But Mr Johnson has repeatedly said he would not discuss his private life, and during the 2019 election campaign said he would not be discussing his children.
US-UK trade deal
Boris Johnson has blamed his lack of a post-Brexit trade deal with the US on President Joe Biden having “a lot of fish to fry” as he heads to the White House with the hope of restarting the stalled negotiations.
The Prime Minister suggested the free trade agreement (FTA) touted by Leave supporters as a major prize of leaving the European Union was not high on the president’s list of priorities.
Mr Johnson was expected to push to get talks going on Tuesday when he makes his first visit to the White House since Mr Biden succeeded Donald Trump.
Mr Johnson this week insisted that relationships between Washington and London now “are about as good as they have been at any time in decades”.
But Brexit itself presents a quandary to the Prime Minister’s relationship with Mr Biden, who has warned there will be no trade deal if peace in Northern Ireland is jeopardised by the EU departure.
Trans-Atlantic relations have been strained by Mr Biden’s withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan before allies including Britain managed to evacuate all former staff and other vulnerable Afghans.
Communications also appeared troubled in relation to the White House’s announcement on Monday to allow fully vaccinated UK travellers into the US from November, watering down a blanket ban maintained by the Biden administration because of soaring rates of the Delta variant of coronavirus.
A day earlier, Mr Johnson downplayed any expectations that he could “crack” the issue during his visit to the White House.
“I don’t think we’re necessarily going to crack it this week. I’ve got to warn you I don’t think this is going to be necessarily fixed this week,” he said on the RAF Voyager.
Mr Johnson’s last attendance at the UN summit in New York was cut short when in 2019 the Supreme Court ruled his decision to suspend Parliament during the Brexit wranglings was unlawful.
Related: The slow, inevitable burst of Boris’s Brexit bubble