Mary Wakefield
Mary Wakefield is the lovely wife of Dominic Cummings -a British political advisor, strategist and campaign director.
Mary’s husband is most likely known for his role as the Chief Advisor to Boris Johnson on taking over as Prime Minister in 2019. He served in that role until November of 2020.
Prior to this, he was the Director of the Vote Leave Campaign in the lead up to the UK’s EU membership referendum of 2016.
Her husband is currently a critic of his former boss, saying Johnson is to blame for the tens of thousands of deaths during the second wave of the pandemic.
1. She has aristocratic roots
Mary Wakefield is the daughter of Sir Humphry Wakefield, an English baronet and expert on antiques and architecture. Sir Humphry married his third wife, then the Hon. Katherine Baring, in December 1974.
Mary’s mother, Katherine Mary Alice Baring (Lady Wakefield) is daughter of the former Lady Mary Grey from nearby Howick Hall, and from the historic Chillingham family line. The Hon. Lady Wakefield’s father, Lord Howick, was a Knight of the Garter, a one-time Governor of the former Rhodesia, of the South African protectorates and, finally, of the then Mau-Mau stricken Kenya.’
She has two brothers, Maximilian; an entrepreneur and racing driver and younger son Jack -an art critic and dealer.
2. Mary has deep political roots
Through her mother Mary is descended not only from Lord Howick, who acted as the Governor of Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising, but also Albert Grey, the 4th Earl Grey, who was a Governor General of Canada, and Charles Grey, the 2nd Earl Grey. The Earl was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834.
3. She is a magazine Editor, musician and painter
Mary attended Wycombe Abbey school, before moving on to the University of Edinburgh.
She has written for the Sun, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and the Times, Mary climbed the ranks at the Spectator from Assistant Editor to Deputy Editor, before becoming Commissioning Editor. She is also, described as a ‘musician and painter’ on the Chillingham Castle website.
4. She has been married for a decade
Mary Wakefield married Dominic Cummings in December 2011, and in 2016 gave birth to a son, Alexander Cedd. She met her husband through her brother Jack Wakefield.
5. She met with actor Benedict Cumberbatch
Over the summer of 2018, Mary met actor Benedict Cumberbatch -who plays her husband in Brexit: The Uncivil War, for a dinner of vegan pie.
She wrote about the experience on the Spectator saying that he had not come to judge her husband but “to become him”. “He looks so like him in the trailer,” she said. “His mannerisms are so perfect that it’s hard not to imagine he’s having Dom-ish thoughts.”
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