How 'coolest girl' Marie-France van Heel won Burnham's heart

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. How 'coolest girl' Marie-France van Heel won Burnham's heartImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Andy Burnham and Marie-France van Heel have been together since their university daysByJennifer McKiernanPolitical reporterPublished24 June 2026She was described as the coolest girl in college when she first started dating Andy Burnham. More than three decades later, Marie-France van Heel could be about to walk into Downing Street alongside her husband to take on one of the most powerful unofficial roles in government - the prime minister's spouse. Considered the favourite to replace Sir Keir Starmer in No 10, Burnham met Dutch-born van Heel, known as Frankie, when she started studying at Fitzwilliam College at the University of Cambridge in 1989.

He was in his second year of an English Literature degree, and Burnham's former lecturer, John Mullan, wrote in the Times that other students thought he had scooped the pools when they began dating. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Van Heel and Burnham during his 2017 Greater Manchester mayor campaignVan Heel was born in January 1970, the same month as Burnham, and grew up in the Netherlands and Belgium before moving to the UK. Although they started dating at university, van Heel had a surprising request in the early days of their relationship, when she asked Burnham if she could go on Cilla Black's TV dating show Blind Date - and he agreed.

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So in 1992, wearing flares, a bottle green jacket and a yellow headband over her bobbed blonde hair, van Heel appeared on the hit ITV programme. She chose Will from Surrey to be her date on a holiday to Gibraltar, but the pair did not hit it off. Having quickly reunited, Burnham and van Heel were reportedly in a bar in Parliament 12 years later when Will walked in, having become the director of communications for the Conservative Party.

Image source, Shutterstock/ ITVImage caption, Van Heel appeared on the ITV show Blind Date, hosted by Cilla Black, in 1992By this point, van Heel had given birth to their first child, Jimmy - and it was his birth in March 2000 which Burnham has said spurred them on to get married, after years of living together. "I think marriage is better for kids," Burnham told the Daily Telegraph in 2007, external, adding: "I'm a bit old fashioned on these matters - although I have to admit that Jimmy, my eldest son, was at our wedding so I'm only old fashioned up to a point. "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'. "Their daughters, Rosie and Annie, were born a few years later while the couple were living in Manchester. Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Burnham celebrates winning the Greater Manchester mayoral election in 2017 with son Jimmy (L) wife Marie-France van Heel (2nd-L) daughter Rosie (3rd-L) and daughter Annie (4th-R) and his mum Eileen (R).

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