Kwasi Kwarteng has been described by his friends as an "intensely private" person - but his love life has been made very public. The newly-installed Chancellor, who is unveiling his "mini Budget " today, is a long-time ally of Prime Minister Liz Truss and his family used to live on the same London street as his new boss in Greenwich.
Mr Kwarteng had an off-romance with former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who served in the role in Theresa May's government from July 2016 to April 2018. Ms Rudd's name was included in a 'sex dossier' of 36 Conservative MPs back in October 2017, which contained details of their supposed sex lives and relationships.
Ms Rudd was put on there because of her 'workplace relationship' with Mr Kwarteng, who is 12 years younger than her and was a backbencher at the time.
Ms May, the PM at the time, was reportedly reeling that her right-hand man Damian Green and Home Secretary were on the 'dirty dossier', which had allagedly been drawn up by staff.
Although the relationship had been public knowledge for some years - unlike many of the other claims on the list.
During an interview with the Belfast Telegraph in March 2018, Ms Rudd confirmed that their relationship was over.
When asked if she was currently single, she simply replied: "Yes."
Mr Kwarteng then found love with blonde City lawyer Harriet Edwards, who he married in 2019 and now has a young daughter with.
It's certainly a small world as Ms Edwards attended Cheltenham Ladies' College, which is where Amber Rudd also went to school.
Back in April 2019, a friend revealed that Mr Kwarteng had proposed to his sweetheart at her mother's house in Derbyshire.
Confirming the news, Mr Kwarteng said: "We're very happy… we had thought we'd let friends know gently over the course of the week but, now it's a story."
Harriet graduated in History and Modern Languages from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland before working for auctioneers Christie's in Geneva, Switzerland.
She worked for USB investment bank in New York, then became a senior solicitor at accounting firm KPMG specialising in advising families and private clients on 'succession planning'.
A friend who has known the couple a long time was quoted in a profile as saying Miss Edwards had 'stabilised' her husband and 'given him a home life he didn't have' before they met.
Back in October last year, the couple welcomed their first baby, daughter Ida, and they bought a Victorian villa just 350 yards from Ms Truss's £1.5million four-storey townhouse in Greenwich.
The new Prime Minister and Chancellor are obviously now neighbours once again in Downing Street.
The only child of Ghanaian parents who arrived as students in the 1970s, Mr Kwarteng grew up in Waltham Forest, in east London.
The future Tory bigwig started out at a state primary before being sent to fee-paying prep school Colet Court when he was 8-years-old.
He won a scholarship to Eton, and later studied classics and history at Cambridge University, a path well-travelled by prominent Conservatives.
Mr Kwarteng only began to rise through the ranks in 2018 as a Brexit minister in Theresa May's government.
Do you have a story to share? Email webfeatures@trinitymirror.com
