Over the weekend, Mary Wakefield was the most Googled woman in Britain. Why? Because of the fury and confusion around her and husband Dominic Cummings' breach of the lockdown rules after developing suspected Covid-19 in March.
In late March, Cummings, the prime ministers chief advisor, left his home in London with his wife and son and travelled 260 miles to his parents' home in Country Durham. The family later returned to London. This travel occurred while people were not allowed to leave the house for non-essential reasons – but Cummings insists the travel was essential.
At the weekend, a joint investigation by the Guardian and Daily Mirror found he had been spoken to by the police because of the trip. Many were furious, suggesting that Cummings and his family had felt exempt from the lockdown rules. Plenty wondered why Wakefield, who is a journalist for The Spectator, had published recorded a very different account of her experience of Covid-19.
Who Is Mary Wakefield?
Wakefield, 45, is a journalist and commissioning editor for The Spectator. Daughter of Sir Humphry Wakefield, an architecture expert, and Katherine Alice, her family history is filled with nobility (literally, she’s descended from the 1st Barock Howick of Glendale and the House of Grey – an ancient English noble family.)
Working at The Spectator for decades, even during Boris Johnson’s tenure as editor, she is also a columnist and has written for The Sun, Daily Mail, The Telegraph and The Times. She was forced to apologise in 2015 after referring to an 18-year-old boy who had recently died in a moped crash as a ‘thuggish white lad’.
She married Dominic Cummings in 2011, and the couple have one son, Alexander Cedd, born in 2016.
Why is Mary Wakefield in the news?
Wakefield is facing new controversy after she and her family travelled across the country with suspected Covid-19 symptoms despite government lockdown rules stating that someone in her position should self-isolate at home for 14 days. The couple made the journey four days after the lockdown rules were enforced, with everyone told to stay home except for buying essential supplies.
What is the Mary Wakefield article everyone is upset about?
This is where her article comes in, as it appears to paint a very different picture of her and her husband’s experience with Covid-19. In an article for The Spectator USA headlined ‘Getting coronavirus does not bring clarity’, she implied the couple had isolated at home, forgoing any mention of their cross-country drive in the day by day account of developing symptoms.
Calling out inconsistencies online, commentators have noted differences in her article and the press conference Cummings held to explain their decision.
Cummings has defended their actions by stating he was worried they would be left without childcare should he develop symptoms after Mary – which he did 24 hours after she first reported having it, according to her article. However, there is no mention of this in the article, nor did she mention their son's stay in hospital. It also doesn’t mentioned the trip to Barnard Castle, 15 days after Cummings developed symptoms, which he claims was in an effort to test his eyesight and readiness to drive back to London.
Can Mary Wakefield drive?
Another hugely Googled question, many are now wondering why – if Wakefield was with Cummings at his parents' farm – she couldn’t just drive the family home and thereby avoid Cummings needing to ‘test his eyes’ with the Barnard Castle trip.
She can drive, as proven by another Spectator article where she discusses driving.
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