Marie-France van Heel was the coolest girl in college when she started dating Andy Burnham. Now, more than three decades later, she is about to walk into Downing Street alongside her husband as he takes on one of the most powerful unofficial roles in government: the prime minister’s spouse.
Burnham will replace Sir Keir Starmer in No 10 on Monday, and he met Dutch-born van Heel – known as Frankie – when she began studying at Fitzwilliam College at the University of Cambridge in 1989. He was in his second year of an English Literature degree. Their former lecturer, John Mullan, wrote in the Times that other students thought Burnham had “scooped the pools” when they started dating.
“Marie-France van Heel, who went on Blind Date in 1992, will be PM's spouse as Andy Burnham enters No 10.”
Van Heel was born in January 1970, the same month as Burnham, and grew up in the Netherlands and Belgium before moving to the UK. Though they began dating at university, she made a surprising request early in their relationship: she asked Burnham if she could go on Cilla Black’s TV dating show Blind Date – and he agreed. In 1992, wearing flares, a bottle green jacket and a yellow headband over her bobbed blonde hair, she appeared on the hit ITV programme. She chose Will from Surrey for a holiday to Gibraltar, but the pair did not hit it off. Quickly reunited, Burnham and van Heel were reportedly in a bar in Parliament 12 years later when Will walked in, having become the director of communications for the Conservative Party.
By then, van Heel had given birth to their first child, Jimmy, in March 2000 – a birth that Burnham said spurred them to get married after years of living together. “I think marriage is better for kids,” Burnham told the Daily Telegraph in 2007. “I’m a bit old fashioned on these matters – although I have to admit that Jimmy, my eldest son, was at our wedding so I’m only old fashioned up to a point. When my wife got pregnant for the first time it was a complete shock. My first thought was, ‘Oh my God, we’ll have to get married’.” Their daughters, Rosie and Annie, were born a few years later while the couple were living in Manchester.
The Scotsman has noted that Burnham shows he can connect with the public much better than Sir Keir Starmer, and was far more optimistic than Starmer in his early days as PM. As the Burnham family prepares to move into No 10, van Heel, a marketing executive, will take on the role of prime minister’s spouse – a position that carries no official duties but immense public scrutiny.
