Miriam González Durántez, the wife of Nick Clegg, has revealed she is the author of an anonymous food blog, about which Liberal Democrat aides knew nothing until now.
On the blog mumandsons González Durántez, who is a partner at an international law firm, describes herself as a Spanish mum. Recipes have been posted on the blog since early 2011, and include Spanish dishes such as pisto, merluza en salsa verde and tortilla, a dish she describes as “a bit obvious”.
But British classics also feature, including sausage rolls, salmon en croute and asparagus and poached eggs. González Durántez describes British seasonal asparagus the best in the world.
The wife of the deputy prime minister said she would be told off after revealing she was the author of the site while taking part in a Q&A on the parenting site Mumsnet. A member of the site asked the mother-of-three about dealing with such a demanding work and home life.
In her reply, González Durántez said she loved cooking and mentioned the blog, which she has been writing for three years. “When my husband’s advisers learn this they are going to freak out!” she wrote.
“My two eldest boys challenged me to start a cooking blog with simple recipes that we can cook together and my youngest one has now joined in,” she writes in the introduction to her blog. “I am hoping they pick up some cooking and photograph skills … or that at least they learn to design and run a blog.
“Initially we committed to run the blog for a year but we set the objective of generating £40,” she added. “Three years on we are still very far away from that objective. I have agreed to run the blog until we get there, but only provided they do too … let’s see!”
At the Lib Dem press office, aides said they were categorically not panicking.
“We didn’t know about the blog but there’s been no freaking out,” said a spokeswoman, who said she had since visited the website and checked out various recipes herself.
During her Q&A, González Durántez said she had learned to cope with being called “Mrs Clegg” by “the conservative media”.
“Those people have called me bad mother, bad wife, human rights abuser … I have figured out that when they call me Mrs Clegg they are trying to be nice!” she said.
She said she would not be doing any similar photoshoots to those done by Ed and Justine Miliband, who were featured on the BBC with their two sons, though she and Clegg were filmed in their family kitchen recently by ITV.
“Both Nick and I believe that protecting our children comes first,” she said. “We have never allowed any pictures of them. They know what Nick does and we obviously cannot isolate them completely. But we protect them as much as we can.”
But González Durántez dismissed the “victim complex” about politicians’ families being in the public eye. “I can guarantee you that most of what families of politicians go through is nothing in comparison to the issues that other families have to deal with,” she said.
One of the site members asked González Durántez if she had watched Channel 4’s Coalition, a TV drama about the coalition’s formation in 2010.
“I still think George Clooney would have been a so much better fictional husband,” she replied.
And she also said that Clegg, once a regular smoker, had managed to even quit using an e-cigarette.
González Durántez was taking part in the Q&A to promote the Inspiring Women campaign, asking successful women to pledge one hour a year to inspiring future leaders. But she said she could never see herself entering British politics.
“I cannot even vote in this country, so there is no chance I could be a candidate,” González Durántez wrote. “Though I would tell you this; I would have given my right arm to have been able to do for my country what Nick has done for his.”
