Jennifer Arcuri has lifted the lid on the "physical and mental attraction" that drew her and Boris Johnson together.
In a bombshell interview with the Sunday Mirror, the American businesswoman said: “I loved him. I adored him.”
She said they carried on a four-year affair between 2012 and 2016, when the Tory was Mayor of London, saying she was seduced by the "real magic of Boris Johnson".
They shared a love of Shakespeare, she codenamed him Alexander the Great, and she says he loved her body and mind and “couldn’t keep his hands off me” on their first tryst.
It was his second term of office and he was married to now ex-wife Marina, mother of their four children.
Jennifer was a business student when she met Boris at an event where he spoke, in 2011. She says: “He entered the room, his hair all dishevelled. That’s when I saw the first real magic of Boris Johnson.
"He’d turn the whole room into a bunch of howling schoolgirls. I made a beeline for the front of the line. I said, ‘Hello, my name is Jennifer, if you didn’t know me, now you do’.”
Months later, she volunteered to campaign for him in his 2012 London Mayor re-election bid. They met again on the so-called Boris Bus – and he remembered her. They swapped numbers so he could arrange to attend an event run by her fledgling company, Innotech.
“There was an obvious spark,” Jennifer says. Boris even texted her while at the campaign event, watching her from a few metres away.
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Jennifer says: “He said, ‘Boris calling Jennifer.’ Then he said, ‘You’re looking well.’ I texted back something like, ‘You’re welcome to look’. There was this immediate attraction on both sides, physical and intellectual.”
Weeks before the Innotech event, Jennifer says Boris texted, asking to go for a drink. She saved his number under Alex the Great, as his real first name is Alexander.
Jennifer says: “I remember a text saying, ‘Drink one day?’ I squealed. One of my male roommates said, ‘What kind of girl is friends with Boris Johnson?’ I remember everybody laughing. I didn’t really get it at the time.
“It was suggested I have a codename for the Mayor of London because of the random text messaging. It would come at any time, any hour.” The romance unfolded as the London Olympics and Paralympics were just a few months away.
Boris gave a keynote address at one of her tech events on April 13 – before romping to victory in the May 3 election.
Buoyed by his win, Jennifer says Boris finally pinned her down for their first “private drink” – at the swish Tavistock Hotel in London’s Bloomsbury.
Jennifer says: “He showed up late, dishevelled and chaotic. He was biking – he came in with his helmet. I thought, ‘That’s a great look for the start of this’.
"He went to the bar and came back within a minute and said, ‘Jennifer can I borrow £3.10?’ I thought, ‘I’m a student buying you a beer, you should be ashamed of yourself’.
“It cracked me up. He asked things like where did you come from, what do you want to be? I remember being enchanted with this man.”
Weeks later, Jennifer says Boris invited her for a meal at Ciao Bella on Lamb’s Conduit Street – where he complimented her on a Union Jack bow in her hair.
She says: “He gave me a hug in front of everyone. It just felt so natural. We had red wine, I had a nicoise salad and he had fish and chips and then ate off my plate.
“He was very forthright. He said, ‘I can’t stop thinking about you, I want to date you, I really like you’. I said, ‘I’m not someone you play games with.
“You are always honest with me and you respect me and my time. If you don’t want to see me, you just tell me’. He said, ‘I’m not one to fall for American women’. I responded, ‘I’m not one to fall for politicians – we’re going to have to play this very slow’.
“This is where I got to see a little bit of the man for the first time and I’d be lying if I was to say I didn’t love who I was seeing.” She says Boris stroked her leg under the table and, outside, begged to go home with her.
Jennifer says: “He screamed, ‘Kiss me!’ And I said, ‘Mr Mayor, I do not kiss politicians on the street’. He said, ‘This is my city, I don’t care’.” Boris also posed for selfies with members of the public outside.
Jennifer recalls: “He was very much wanting to take me home that evening. I refused to give in. He got very frustrated and biked off in a huff.”
Jennifer says they did not discuss his marriage at length. But, on reflection, she admits: “I can look back and say I should have handled that differently, but I’ve learned a lot.”
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