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 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. The newspapers referred to the scandal as "Cheriegate". Her relationship with the so-called "style guru" and former model Carol Kaplan has caused consternation in many people.

Trivia

• In June 2004, the UK media reported that she had been shopping on eBay (using userid cherie_boo, since changed to cb23954), buying several pairs of high-heeled shoes for herself, and Disney videos and a Winnie the Pooh alarm clock for Leo.
• 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.

External link

• Matrix Law: Cherie Booth QC http://www.matrixlaw.co.uk/who/booth.html (her profile at her law firm)