Who is Marie-France van Heel? Andy Burnham's 'cool' wife of 25 years
The pair bonded at Cambridge over their love for The Smiths - but their relationship was tested when Ms van Heel went on Blind Date
As Andy Burnham achieves his decades-long ambition of becoming the UK’s prime minister on Monday, by his side will be his wife of 25 years, Marie-France van Heel.
Who is the one-time game show contestant and marketing boss who is about to move into Downing Street?
Ms van Heel, nicknamed Frankie, was described as “the coolest girl in college” when she met fellow undergraduate Mr Burnham at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in 1989.
Mr Burnham was in his second year studying English when the pair bonded over a shared love of The Smiths.
Their relationship took an unusual turn when she went on Cilla Black’s ITV show Blind Date in 1992.
Mr Burnham said he watched the programme from behind the sofa.
Ms van Heel, wearing a yellow headband over her blonde bob, chose “Will from Surrey”, who was wearing dungarees over a red jumper.
Luckily for Mr Burnham, the duo did not hit it off, with Ms van Heel throwing a cushion at her TV date, who described her as a “cold fish”.
“Will from Surrey”, otherwise known as Will Harris, went on to become a marketing director for the Conservative Party.
Dutch-born Ms van Heel and Mr Burnham married in 2000 and had their first child of three – a son and two daughters – that year.
The family, who have a bichon frise named Axel, are said to be tight-knit.
Professionally, Ms van Heel has spent much of her career in marketing.
After working at BSkyB, she founded MVH Marketing, and later became chief strategy officer at London-based agency Heavenly, which has worked on campaigns for HSBC, England Rugby and the BBC.
She is now chief marketing officer at Iduna Infrastructure, a firm which owns large parts of Manchester’s electric vehicle charging network.
After questions about a possible conflict of interest, Mr Burnham, as Greater Manchester mayor, distanced himself from decisions about Iduna and declared his wife’s job.
Ms van Heel has largely stayed out of the limelight since her husband first became an MP in 2001.
She did not join Mr Burnham on stage after his speech accepting the Labour leadership.
But they were pictured embracing in the hall of the TUC’s headquarters in London, where their children also sat in the front row.
It remains to be seen how visible she chooses to be once she takes up residence in No 10 as the prime minister’s spouse.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.