Cherie Blair QC (born in Bury, Greater Manchester on September 23, 1954), better known as the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is also a successful lawyer, in which capacity she uses her maiden name Cherie Booth.

Her father, the actor Tony Booth, walked out when she was two. He would later gain fame for his role in the BBC comedy Til Death Us Do Part. When Cherie was an adult, her stepmother was actress Patricia Phoenix, but she was only such for a short time before she died of lung cancer.

She studied at the London School of Economics for a law degree. She was the first (and still the only) person to earn an LSE law degree with a first class in all her subjects. She later came at the top of her year in the bar exams, while teaching law at the University of Westminster. In 1976, while she was studying to become a lawyer, she met Tony Blair. She won a pupillage in the chambers of Derry Irvine ahead of him, although he was taken on part-time. They married on March 29, 1980. They have four children: Euan, Nicky, Kathryn and Leo.

Booth unsuccessfully contested the seat of North Thanet in Kent at the 1983 UK general election, while her husband was selected at the last minute for a safe seat in Sedgefield, County Durham in the same election.

She established her own chambers, called Matrix Law, in the late 1990s to specialise in cases brought under the European Convention of Human Rights. In 2002, she hit the newspaper headlines because of her involvement with Peter Foster , a convicted Australian conman who assisted her with the purchase of two flats in Bristol. Booth tried to distance herself from Foster and briefed the press office at Number 10 to go public with a statement claiming that Foster was not involved with the deal to buy the two flats. She asked them to lie and was caught out when Foster provided the evidence that she had lied. After misleading the Press Office, The newspapers referred to the scandal as "Cheriegate". As a respected judge, she found herself in a most compromising position and them went public herself, this time shedding tears while reading a prepared statement, and blamed her "misfortune" on the pressures of running a family and being a mother. Her relationship with the so-called "style guru" and former model Carol Kaplan has also caused consternation in many people.

Trivia

• In May 2000, it was revealed that Cherie is related to John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Booth was Cherie's great-great-great grandfather’s brother, or her great-great-great grand-uncle.
• She is well known for her "unfortunate" appearances in UK newspapers where the photo-journalists often capture unflattering shots.
• In 2005 she was criticized for accepting a salary for what was dubbed a "charity tour" that took place in Australia and New Zealand. She was also made fun of for mixing up Australians and New Zealanders.

External link

Matrix Law - Cherie Booth, QC*[1] (her profile at her law firm)