Who is Marie-France van Heel? Andy Burnham's Dutch-born wife and his partner since university
Prime Minister's other half is a brand consultant met the new PM at university and has suffered tragedy and family adversity
Andy Burnham is set to give his first Labour Party conference speech as Prime Minister, and his wife of 26 years Marie-France van Heel will likely be watching on.
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Ms van Heel is a 56-year-old brand consultant and has been described as a private individual, but has been increasingly prominent since Mr Burnham entered No 10.
The mother-of-three has been married to the former Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2000, but not all that much is known about her beyond what was broadcast during her appearance on Blind Date in 1992.
She is now firmly in the public eye thanks to Burnham's new political leadership, which he took from Sir Keir Starmer over the summer.
Here is what we know about Marie-France van Heel.
Read also: What time is Burnham's speech at the Labour Party Conference?
Who is Andy Burnham's wife Marie-France van Heel?
Born in the Netherlands, Frankie, as she is known, completed much of her schooling in Belgium but moved to the UK in the late 1980s, meeting her future husband at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.
According to an Independent profile, she had a reputation as being the "coolest girl in the school," but Mr Burnham was not scared off and wasted little time in introducing himself.
“Don’t stay with me if you want to live in London, because I won’t be doing that,” he reportedly told her early on in their relationship, after stating that he wanted to be an MP.
When word got out that the pair were an item, “there was some surprise and a feeling that he had scooped the pools," a former tutor told The Times.
Appearance on Blind Date
Not long into their relationship, van Heel told Burnham that she wanted to accept an invite to appear on Blind Date - by way of advancing her ambition to become a children's TV presenter.
He accepted, and so van Heel went on the Cilla Black show despite being in a relationship.
Clips of the episode are still available online and show van Heel rebuffing her suitor Will Harris - who the Burnhams would re-encounter years later when he became a communications exec for the Conservative Party.
Marriage
Burnham and van Heel married in 2000. Van Heel had become pregnant with their first child, Jimmy, Mr Burnham recounted in 2007 in a Telegraph interview.
"When my wife got pregnant for the first time it was a complete shock. My first thought was, 'Oh my God, we'll have to get married'."
As well as their son, Burnham and van Heel went onto have daughters Rosie and Anne-Marie.
Career
She did not become a children's presenter, but van Heel became successful as a brand consultant, working for Sky, and then designing logos for England Rugby and the BBC.
From 2008 to 2010, she ran her own company MVH Marketing and, these days, works for Be.EV, the electric vehicle charging network.
Van Heel no longer has social media, which was once an outpost for her complaints about the Conservative government.
She assisted his campaign to be Labour leader in 2015 but has since withdrawn from being in the public view.
Personal tragedy
Van Heel lost her sister Claire to breast cancer, when she was just 39, leaving behind four children under the age of eight.
Her mother and second sister were also treated for the disease around the same time, and underwent a double mastectomy in 2010.
Burnham said: "[It was] liberating rather than depressing because it shifted the cloud of fear. She did what she did because she’d seen the devastation breast cancer had caused to her sisters and mother."
Moving into No 10
Chances are, van Heel will be seen more than she is used to - with spouses of heads of state usually accompanying their other halves to state functions.
She will, however, more likely follow the example of Victoria Starmer who was seen occasionally but rarely stole the headlines, perhaps save for when she was complimented by Donald Trump.