Foreign Secretary James Cleverly feared losing his wife after her breast cancer diagnosis
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said he “could not speak or sleep” when he found out his wife had breast cancer.
Susie Cleverly, 49, was diagnosed with triple positive breast cancer in December 2021 after spotting dimpled skin underneath her right breast the month before – nearly a year ago to the day.
At the time, her husband was a minister in the Foreign Office, where Liz Truss was foreign secretary in the Boris Johnson administration.
The couple, who have been married for 29 years after meeting at university and have two teenage sons, spoke to Sky News’ Beth Rigby Interviews… programme about her diagnosis, how they have coped, and what it has been like to handle it all while holding one of the great offices of state.
After being diagnosed, Mrs Cleverly rang her husband, who was on the train into Westminster, and told him the doctor thought it was cancer.
“I just burst into tears and I think I cried most of that day,” she said.
‘I just couldn’t get the words out’
Mr Cleverly, 53, who has been the MP for Braintree since 2015, added: “I said I’ll come home.
“I had to ring my private secretary in the Foreign Office saying ‘can you cancel meetings because I need to go home’, and he said ‘is everything okay minister?’
“I tried to say Susie might have cancer, I just couldn’t get the words out, I couldn’t speak – I like to talk, but I just couldn’t speak.
“I said I’ll text you, and, you know, this organisation is amazing. Liz Truss was my boss at the time, she was absolutely amazing.
“I went home, Susie and I talked it through, and I tried to ring again to explain what was going on – and I still couldn’t say a word.
“For the next couple of hours everything was done on WhatsApp, and it really hit me, I never felt anything like that before.”
Susie Cleverly found dimpled skin on her right breast nearly a year ago to the day, which turned out to be breast cancer
‘The most frightening word was cancer’
Mrs Cleverly then had about eight mammograms in one day, but they could not see anything until a scan found three lumps in her breast and a node in her arm.
After an MRI, the doctors found more than 12 lumps.
“I wasn’t scared when they told me that,” she said.
“I think the most frightening thing was the word ‘cancer’, so as soon as I was on board with having cancer, I just thought I’m going to get on with it.”
Massive wave of empathy from all MPs
Mr Cleverly said their family and friends have been “fantastic”, with many shaving their heads in solidarity and for charity.
He said despite politics being “ultra-competitive”, MPs from all parties have been very supportive.
“There was this massive wave of empathy and friendship, even from people I didn’t even know particularly well, that was really touching,” he said.
Mrs Cleverly’s treatment left her incredibly ill, with her toenails falling out, infected hives, her face ballooning and stomach and mouth ulcers.
She has now had a mastectomy but is still having immunotherapy to reduce the risk of recurrence and is on a waiting list for reconstructive surgery.
“I feel great, I feel so much more like me,” she said.
‘I thought I might lose her’
But Mr Cleverly admitted there were a “couple of times” he thought he might lose his wife.
Holding back tears, he said: “I haven’t thought about my mortality, and certainly haven’t ever really given any thought to losing Susie, or what that might feel like – and then suddenly you get to confront that. And, we are close.”
The MP, who was made foreign secretary by Ms Truss in September, said he could not have taken the job if it had been earlier in the year when she was going through chemotherapy.
Mrs Cleverly said: “I would have said, do it. But you could have done so.”
Her husband added: “Had I been asked perhaps six or seven months ago when you went through chemo, I don’t think I would have been able to give it the energy and the focus I think the job deserves.
“She’s always been very, very supportive of me and my career. And I do travel a lot. I think the big thing from this is, I think both of us, maybe me, I’m less blase about the time we do have together.
“So when we are together, we’re very, very conscious of making that time really valuable and really meaningful.”
Talking about his job, Mr Cleverly added that he truly believes Ukrainians will succeed in taking their country back from Vladimir Putin, with the best option now for the Russians to withdraw.
He added that Russia should give all the Ukrainian land it has taken back, including Crimea.
“We will continue to support the Ukrainians until this is done,” he said.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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