page_title: John Bercow
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: John Bercow / Personal life
context_page_description: John Simon Bercow PC is a British politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 2009 to 2019, and as Member of Parliament for Buckingham between 1997 and 2019. He was the first MP who was elected Speaker without previously serving as a Deputy Speaker since Selwyn Lloyd in 1971. Prior to his election as Speaker, he was a Conservative MP.
  He served as a councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth from 1986 to 1990 and unsuccessfully contested parliamentary seats in the 1987 and 1992 general elections, before being elected for Buckingham in 1997. Promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in 2001, Bercow held posts under Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard. In November 2002, he resigned over a dispute concerning his support for same-sex adoption, but returned a year later, only to be dismissed from the Shadow Cabinet in 2004. Having initially been strongly associated with the right-wing faction of his party, his views shifted over time; by 2009 there were rumours that he would defect to the Labour Party, although Bercow denied these.
  Following the resignation of Speaker Michael Martin in June 2009, Bercow stood in the election to replace him and was successful.
context_section_description: Bercow married Sally Illman in 2002 after 13 years of an "on-off" relationship, and they have three children. Their elder son, Oliver, has autism. His wife, who used to be a Conservative, switched to supporting the Labour Party, campaigning for both her husband individually and Labour in the wider election in 1997. Bercow and those close to him reject the view that she was especially influential in changing his political views. Bercow has spoken of "periods of turbulence" in the marriage—Sally left him for a time and had an affair with his cousin Alan Bercow, after which he made preparations to divorce her—but described his wife as "a rock". Both he and his wife are teetotalers.
  Bercow is a humanist, and before taking the role of Speaker was a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group. When discussing the role of clergy in Parliament, he described himself in a Commons debate as "an irreligious person taking a secular interest in an important subject".
  Bercow has been a fan of Arsenal F.C. since January 1971 and is a season ticket holder. He always attends games with his son. In 2014 his book Tennis Maestros: The Twenty Greatest Male Tennis Players of All Time was published by Biteback Publishing.
caption: John Bercow's arms, designed by Hubert Chesshyre