After Cambridge, Wheeler returned to Brussels and worked there for four years. In 1987, she was called to the Bar, practising from chambers in London at One Crown Office Row. In her work as a barrister, Wheeler specialises in mental health matters and discrimination claims. In January 2004, she was appointed to the B-Panel of Junior Counsel to the Crown.[8] In 2009, she joined the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal as a barrister member.[9]
Of her legal work, Wheeler has stated:
My own experience, shared by many colleagues, is that a high proportion of discrimination cases we deal with are ill-founded. One colleague puts the figure at more than 60 per cent... Many unregulated advisors make a living bringing discrimination claims, and they do not always seem to have the best interests of the Applicant in mind.[10]
In October 2023 she was announced as the Labour Party's advisor on protecting women from workplace sexual harassment and discrimination.[12]
Personal life
On 8 May 1993, a pregnant Wheeler married her childhood friend Boris Johnson, whose previous marriage had ended 12 days earlier.[13] Together they have four children, including Lara Lettice,[5][14] their eldest child born 12 June 1993.[13]
In September 2018, Johnson and Wheeler issued a statement confirming that after 25 years of marriage, they had separated "several months ago" and begun divorce proceedings.[15] They reached a financial settlement in February 2020,[16] and the divorce was finalised in 2020.[17]
In August 2019, Wheeler revealed that she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer earlier in the year and had undergone two operations to be in remission.[18]
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