Michael Gove‘s son has described how the Covid-19 lockdown proved the final blow to his parents’ marriage.
Reflecting on the challenges of having a high-profile parent, Will Gove, 20, also told how he has been turned down for three jobs because of his surname.
He made the revelations after sitting down with his former Cabinet Minister father for the latest episode of the Mail’s The Apple &The Tree podcast, for a candid discussion of their shared family history.
Mr Gove, who separated from his wife, Mail columnist Sarah Vine, in January 2022 after 20 years of marriage, asked his son what was the closest he had come as a parent to breaking his heart.
Football fan Will joked: ‘Apart from not supporting Chelsea, the closest you’ve ever come was splitting up with Mum.
‘It was upsetting at the time. At first you think, ‘no, this is good.’ But there was a certain amount of emotional baggage there that got me in the end.’
During his marriage to Ms Vine, Mr Gove was elected as the Tory MP for Surrey Heath, held a string of Cabinet positions under David Cameron, Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Rishi Sunak, and helped to spearhead the Vote Leave campaign.
On the latest episode of the Mail’s ‘The Apple & The Tree’ podcast, former Conservative minister Michael Gove braved sitting down with his son Will. Listen here
Will Gove revealed that Michael’s eventual split from mum Sarah Vine was the closest his father ever came to breaking his heart. Listen here
But out of all the tumultuous political events their family endured, Will said he and his sister Beatrice, 21, felt the pandemic was the most trying time in his parents’ relationship.
‘For you and Mum, lockdown didn’t seem the best,’ he told his father in the podcast.
‘Me and Bea knew something was happening because mum had been sleeping in the guest bedroom for years by that point.
‘It was early 2021 that you broke the news of your separation to us both. Then lockdown happened, and you were forced to spend loads of time together.
‘Mum said it was hard because she wanted time to herself, to explore after 20 years of being married to you.
‘It was made harder still by all the criticism the Tories were getting – I think Mum had just had too much of it by that point. Lockdown caused the water to come to boil, to steal a phrase.’
However, Mr Gove, who is now editor of The Spectator magazine after standing down as an MP last year, identified two different moments in his career where he felt politics interfered most with the family’s home life.
‘There were many ups and downs, that’s inevitable in politics. But two big moments stand out,’ he said.
‘One was the furore over expenses: every MP was in the firing line. I had to go to a public meeting with my constituents to explain how the expenses system worked. You [Will] were six weeks old.
Michael said the runup to the 2016 Brexit referendum blurred the lines between the personal and the political. Listen here
‘It was touch and go for me at that point and I worried that the pressure I was under was an impact on my family.
‘You do worry about the fact you’re preoccupied: that even though you’re physically at home, you look absent. You ask yourself, does that mean you’re doing a good job as a parent?’
Mr Gove also said the runup to the 2016 Brexit referendum blurred the lines between the personal and the political, with adviser Dominic Cummings spending huge amounts of time at their home.
Will agreed, saying family life ‘didn’t feel normal’ as arguments about the referendum engulfed the nation.
He told the exclusive podcast: ‘It was a shock when Brexit came about. People we considered family friends stopped talking to us. Mum was also having a lot of arguments with her friends.
‘It was all bit weird. I’d come downstairs in my pyjamas and interrupt these massively important conversations going on.
‘Retrospectively, it did make life more vibrant and interesting, apart from having to deal with all the jeers in the playground.’
Will also revealed that having the name Gove has seen him rejected from three jobs.
Asked by his father whether his celebrity had helped or hindered him, he said: ‘I’ve been rejected from three pubs because of my surname…
‘My friend gave me the opportunity to work there. I did a trial shift, and the worker said, ‘Yeah, fine’.
‘And then when they put my name on the pay scale, the owner of the pub came into the group chat and said, ‘No Gove is working in a pub of mine’.’
To find out why Tory MP Ed Vaizey was roped in to drive Ms Vine to the hospital to give birth, listen to the full episode of The Apple & The Tree, available now wherever you get your podcasts.
Each week the podcast series, now in its second season, sees a different celebrity parent and their adult child sit down with host the Reverend Richard Coles to discuss parts of their shared history that they’ve always wanted to know more about but never talked about before.
