Today marked Keir Starmer’s official resignation, as the former Prime Minister travelled to Buckingham Palace to formally step down, paving the way for Markerfield Labour MP Andy Burnham to succeed him.
The 56-year-old, from Merseyside, took to the podium at Downing Street this afternoon to give his first official speech as UK leader, delivering a string of promises to “be better”, acknowledging that the party had lost voters’ faith.
And as he prepares to unpack his bags at Westminster, so too does his wife, Marie-France van Heel, otherwise known as Frankie or solely by her initials, MF.
Despite the tricky circumstances surrounding Andy’s new premiership, Marie appeared chipper as she stepped out in a sleek baby blue gown alongside her husband at Downing Street.
So, who is the new Prime Minister’s wife?
Marie was originally born in the Netherlands but went on to spend the first part of her life living in Belgium before moving to the UK to study at Cambridge University. She read English at Fitzwilliam College and met Andy during her second year at university.
TV appearance
Andy is not the only politician that Marie has had romantic ties to. In 1992, she appeared on the British dating game show, Blind Date, and went on a date with Will Harris, who later became the marketing director of the Conservative Party.
She and Andy were in a relationship at the time of the show, though she had been given her boyfriend’s full consent to take the TV opportunity, which she believed could help raise her profile and boost her career. The couple married in 2000 and now have a son, Jimmy, and two daughters, Rosie and Annie, all of whom are in their 20s.
© Getty ImagesWorking life
After finishing her studies, she held various marketing roles, including at Sky, and was part of a team responsible for creating logo designs for the BBC and England Rugby. She even created her own firm MVH Marketing, but dissolved the company in 2011 after just three years.
Elsewhere, she has worked for campaign designer Heavenly, and later joined a Manchester-based electric vehicle charging network in 2024.
Marie currently sits on the board of humanitarian organisation Plan International where she has worked with a number of charities including Marie Curie, Alzheimer’s Society and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
© Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future PublisPrivate life
While Marie has given a handful of interviews so far, she has more recently kept to herself and recently purged all of her social media profiles. One of the reasons for this may be that Marie tragically lost her sister Claire to breast cancer when she was only 39.
According to The Telegraph, friends of Marie have largely protected her from journalists by rebuffing invitations to interview.
Those who have opened up about Marie have reportedly described her as a “beautiful, very gentle and highly intelligent” woman, who speaks three languages.
The outlet also reported that a close family friend said: “I think she sums up the line ‘behind every successful man is a strong woman’. She stays out of the limelight, but is clearly Andy’s rock, who adores her kids. Fashionable, but extremely funny and personable. Marie-France is just one of us, no airs and graces. A people’s person.”
Read the full article here
