Petronella Wyatt 'not embarrassed by anything'
Rumours of a relationship between glamorous Petronella Wyatt and her boss Boris Johnson have been circulating for several months.
Vivacious Ms Wyatt, known as Petsy to her friends, cemented her friendship with the blond Tory MP in 1999, when Johnson was appointed editor of The Spectator and Ms Wyatt was its deputy editor.
In the past she has reportedly praised Johnson as her “mentor” at the magazine.
Now a columnist there responsible for penning “Singular Life”, Ms Wyatt is the daughter of the late Woodrow Wyatt, who became Lord Wyatt of Weeford.
The diarist, who began as a Labour MP and ended as an ardent Thatcherite and Royalist in the House of Lords, died in 1997. His only daughter is said to still feel the loss deeply.
She once said of his famous eccentricity: “The one good thing was it inured you against embarrassment, so now I’m not easily embarrassed by anything because I had it all as a child.”
Her mother Verushka, Lord Wyatt’s fourth wife, is a formidable Hungarian émigré.
Away from journalism, Ms Wyatt is an accomplished singer who performed at former Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont’s 50th birthday.
Stories about her free-spirited attitude abound, claiming she was prone to using her mother to cover for her when a pressing social engagement kept her away from work.
On one occasion Lady Wyatt is said to have told her daughter’s editor that Ms Wyatt couldn’t make the journey to work because it was “too windy”.
On another, she rang to say that Petronella had a cold, only for the editor to express bafflement, as Ms Wyatt was sitting beside him.
After a a brief silence Lady Wyatt apparently replied: “Silly me, I got the wrong day. I am supposed to say she is off with a cold tomorrow.”
