Get your news delivered straight to you by 7am - sign up to our new Morning Mail newsletter for FREE See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy JAMES TOZER, NORTHERN CORRESPONDENT Published: 23:42 BST, 19 June 2026 | Updated: 01:37 BST, 20 June 2026
Marie-France van Heel, the Dutch-born wife of Andy Burnham, is a high-flying marketing executive who has largely stayed in the background during his political career.Indeed, her response when he told her his plans to seek a return to Westminster after nine largely successful years as Mayor of Greater Manchester was not entirely supportive.Her initial reaction was 'probably a two-word answer… probably half-joking', Mr Burnham revealed last month, adding that there was 'some encouragement needed'.But the 56-year-old was by his side at the Makerfield count in the early hours of yesterday followed by his victory rally at Ashton Town football club several hours later.Recently described by a close friend as 'beautiful, very gentle and highly intelligent', they met while both were studying at Cambridge University's Fitzwilliam College in 1989.Mr Burnham later recalled how he was 'trying to impress the newly arrived first-year girls' when he found one who loved 1980s Manchester band The Smiths.'The rest, as they say, is history,' he added.In the early years of their relationship, Ms van Heel –known as Frankie – appeared on the ITV show Blind Date. Viewers heard she was studying social and political sciences, captained the college women's football team and fancied actor Matt Dillon. Marie-France van Heel (pictured), the Dutch-born wife of Andy Burnham, is a high-flying marketing executive who has largely stayed in the background during his political careerFortunately for her future husband – whom she married in 2000 – her trip to Gibraltar after choosing 'Will from Surrey' was a disaster, with the cameras capturing him branding her a 'cold fish'.Things got even worse backstage, with Frankie said to have told him: 'F*** off – I never want to see you again.'In fact, she would – ironically at a Commons bar in 2003, three years after she and Mr Burnham married.Will Harris, to give him his full name, was by then marketing director of the Conservative Party, of all things.Working with major clients including MTV and Sky, Ms van Heel has largely stayed out of politics – although outspoken tweets attacking her husband's political opponents were revealed when he last stood for the Labour leadership in 2015.The couple relocated north when Mr Burnham became MP for Leigh in 2001 and have three children, Jimmy, Rosie and Annie, all now in their 20s.
