Cherie Blair

Lady Cherie Blair (; born 23 September 1954), also known professionally as Cherie Booth, is an English barrister and writer. She is married to former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair. Early life and education Booth was born on 23 September 1954 at Fairfield General Hospital, Bury, Lancashire, England, and brought up in Ferndale Road, Waterloo, Merseyside, just north of Liverpool. Although her birth was registered as 'Cherie', owing to her maternal grandmother's influence, she was christened 'Theresa Cara' in deference to the requirement that she be given a saint's name. Her father, British actor Tony Booth, left her mother, actress Gale Howard (née Joyce Smith; 14 February 1933 – 5 June 2016), when Cherie was 8 years old. Cherie and her younger sister Lyndsey were then brought up by Gale and their paternal grandmother Vera Booth, a devout Roman Catholic of Irish descent. The sisters attended Catholic schools in Crosby, Merseyside. Cherie Booth attended Seafield Convent Grammar, which is now part of Sacred Heart Catholic College, where she achieved four As in her A Levels. She read law at the London School of Economics and graduated with First-Class Honours. Later she was enrolled at the College of Law and passed her Bar Vocational Course. She came at the top of her year in the bar exams, while teaching law at the Polytechnic of Central London (University of Westminster). She was the Labour candidate for the Conservative safe seat of North Thanet in Kent in the 1983 general election, losing to Roger Gale. Legal career A member of Lincoln's Inn, she became a barrister in 1976 and Queen's Counsel in 1995. Until 1988, her head of chambers was George Carman. In 1999, she was appointed a recorder (a permanent part-time judge) in the County Court and Crown Court.