Julian Assange’s secret lover lifts the lid on her shock romance with the WikiLeaks founder

Julian Assange’s fiancee has lifted the lid on how she managed to have two children with the WikiLeaks founder while he was holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. 

South African-born lawyer Stella Morris, 37, fell in love with Assange, 48, in 2015  while visiting him to work on a legal bid to halt his extradition to the U.S.

Assange faces espionage charges over the leaking of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. intelligence documents. 

Gabriel, three, and his brother Max, one, were conceived while Assange was hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy, where he was granted political asylum in 2012 until last April when he was dragged out and taken to prison. 

Ms Morris said she felt ‘fortunate’ to have met Assange, who ‘had changed the world with Wikileaks’. 

South African-born lawyer Stella Morris, 37, fell in love with Assange, 48, in 2015 while visiting him to work on a legal bid to halt his extradition to America

South African-born lawyer Stella Morris (right) fell in love with the controversial WikiLeaks founder five years ago while visiting him to work on a legal bid to halt the extraditions. The couple have been engaged since 2017

South African-born lawyer Stella Morris (right) fell in love with the controversial WikiLeaks founder five years ago while visiting him to work on a legal bid to halt the extraditions. The couple have been engaged since 2017

Ms Morris revealed she and Assange recruited their friend, British actor Stephen Hu, to pose as the children's father so as to not arouse suspicion. Pictured: Mr Hu with Gabriel entering the embassy

Ms Morris revealed she and Assange recruited their friend, British actor Stephen Hu, to pose as the children’s father so as to not arouse suspicion. Pictured: Mr Hu with Gabriel entering the embassy

‘We grew closer and became friends and watched movies together and I just loved spending time with him. It was very romantic and cautious and very sweet,’ she told 60 Minutes on Sunday night. 

‘It wasn’t easy but when you’re with someone you love you can make impossible situations possible.’  

When Gabriel was conceived in 2016, Assange had been inside the embassy for four years and was thought to be under constant surveillance by American security services. 

But Ms Morris said she and Assange – who became engaged in 2017 – conceived both their sons in rooms of the embassy that didn’t have CCTV cameras. 

‘Julian had private spaces, his bedroom and office had no cameras,’ she said.

Julian Assange secretly fathered two sons while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Pictured: The WikiLeaks founder with first son Gabriel

Julian Assange secretly fathered two sons while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Pictured: The WikiLeaks founder with first son Gabriel

‘But when I got pregnant the first time there were microphones everywhere, so I had to write it down on a piece of paper to tell him. 

‘We loved each other, and we wanted to start a family. All these other circumstances would change but that was a certainty. I got pregnant and we were over the moon,’ she said. 

Ms Morris was able to hide both her pregnancies from authorities and the media, who still weren’t privy to any romantic relationship between the pair. 

‘I just piled on layers [of clothes] and complained about getting fat to hide it,’ she said.

At the time, Assange was also wanted in Sweden where he was accused of rape. He has always denied the sex allegations, which have now been dropped.   

In another revelation, Ms Morris revealed she and Assange recruited their friend, British actor Stephen Hu, to pose as the childrens’ father to avoid suspicion.

Mr Hue would regularly bring Gabriel and Max to the embassy to visit Assange where they would keep up the ruse the actor was the toddlers’ father.

Ms Morris was also careful to never arrive to the consulate at the same time as Mr Hu. 

‘It was mainly a security concern and that’s why we went to extreme measures of trying to not expose my pregnancy. You don’t take these steps lightly,’ she said.

‘[We brought in] Gabriel to the embassy with Stephen who would pose as the father just so Julian would be able to see his son regularly.’ 

But security staff were still skeptical of Mr Hu, prompting an investigation and the creation of a dossier of their findings. 

The mother-of-two also claimed a security company working for the CIA in the embassy had plans to steal Gabriel’s nappy for DNA testing to prove Assange’s paternity. 

‘They had instructions to steal Gabriel’s nappy in order to establish that Julian was the father in a bid to hurt Julian,’ she said.

Ms Morris was tipped off by whistleblowers who worked for the company of the plan to run DNA tests on the toddler’s nappy and dummy.  

Ms Morris said she has been living in ‘a permanent state of fear for years’ following the incident. 

Julian Assange pictured as he is led out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in handcuffs following his sensational arrest by British police in April 2019

Julian Assange pictured as he is led out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in handcuffs following his sensational arrest by British police in April 2019

Assange is currently being held at Belmarsh prison (pictured above) which has housed some of the UK's most notorious prisoners

Assange is currently being held at Belmarsh prison (pictured above) which has housed some of the UK’s most notorious prisoners 

‘The real issue was I thought that our family would be targeted by the same people that were trying to harm Julian,’ she said.

It’s alleged that recordings of Assange’s conversations with his doctors and lawyers were sent back to U.S. authorities to strengthen their extradition case.

According to the security firm whistleblowers, there were plots to forcibly remove Assange from the embassy and poison him. 

‘I think it’s hard for people to understand that such lawlessness is possible,’ Ms Morris said. 

‘There’s incredible criminality that has been going on in order to gather information about Julian’s lawyers, and his family, and journalists who were visiting him.

‘I’ve been in a permanent state of fear for years and now it’s slowly playing out.’  

Ms Morris also addressed her fiance’s unexpected friendship with actress-turned-activist Pamela Anderson, who visited Assange at the embassy several times.

‘Julian and her were good friends and shes been an incredible advocate for him and for that I’m very grateful,’ Ms Morris said.

Assange failed to appear via video link for his most recent court matter in London's Westminster Magistrates' Court earlier this month. Pictured: Assange arriving at court last year

Assange failed to appear via video link for his most recent court matter in London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this month. Pictured: Assange arriving at court last year 

Ms Morris pleaded for Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to step in and help free Assange – who was born in Townsville – from Belmarsh maximum security prison in London.

Assange has been at the notoriously tough jail since April last year, after he was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London following seven years of political asylum granted. 

‘I’d like to ask Scott Morrison to do everything he can to get Julian back to his family,’ Ms Morris said.

‘If Australia doesn’t step in I’m very fearful this wrong won’t be righted. It’s a nightmare. 

‘He’s very unwell and I’m very concerned about his ability to survive this. He’s not a criminal. He’s not a dangerous person. He’s a gentle intellectual, a thinker.’ 

She said Assange was being kept alone in a tiny room for 23 hours of the day and was ‘very depressed’.

Ms Morris said she fears her children will have to grow up without a father if he is extradited and sentenced in the U.S.

‘I want people to understand that we’re being punished as a family. It’s not just Julian in the prison. The kids are being deprived of their father. I need Julian and he needs me,’ she said.

Ms Morris is currently living with extended family in London. 

Assange is accused of publishing thousands of secret US diplomatic and military files, some of which revealed alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pictured on the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in west London on December 20, 2012

Assange is accused of publishing thousands of secret US diplomatic and military files, some of which revealed alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pictured on the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in west London on December 20, 2012

She is being supported by Assange’s mother Christine Assange and his father John Shipton, who are both delighted by their grandchildren. 

Mrs Assange has described them as ‘bringing joy and light to our darkest hours’.

Assange failed to appear via video link for his most recent court matter in London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this month.

His defence team had emailed court that their client had ‘had respiratory problems for some time’, the court heard.

WikiLeaks confirmed Assange had been advised against going to the video conferencing room in Belmarsh prison by his doctors and was at high risk of contracting COVID-19 due to an underlying lung condition.

Assange is next scheduled to appear in court on June 29 for a routine call over.  

Assange is accused of publishing thousands of secret US diplomatic and military files, some of which revealed alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The charges carry a total of 175 years’ imprisonment. 

For the past decade, Assange’s legal, political and diplomatic imbroglio has dominated international headlines.

Julian Assange’s long legal battle

2006

Assange creates Wikileaks with a group of like-minded activists and IT experts to provide a secure way for whistleblowers to leak information. He quickly becomes its figurehead and a lightning rod for criticism.

2010

March: U.S. authorities allege Assange engaged in a conspiracy to hack a classified U.S. government computer with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. 

July: Wikileaks starts releasing tens of thousands of top secrets documents, including a video of U.S. helicopter pilots gunning down 12 civilians in Baghdad in 2007.  What followed was the release of more than 90,000 classified US military files from the Afghan war and 400,000 from Iraq that included the names of informants. 

August: Two Swedish women claim that they each had consensual sex with Assange in separate instances when he was on a 10-day trip to Stockholm. They allege the sex became non-consensual when Assange refused to wear a condom.

First woman claims Assange was staying at her apartment in Stockholm when he ripped off her clothes. She told police that when she realized Assange was trying to have unprotected sex with her, she demanded he use a condom. She claims he ripped the condom before having sex.

Second Swedish woman claims she had sex with Assange at her apartment in Stockholm and she made him wear a condom. She alleges that she later woke up to find Assange having unprotected sex with her.

He was questioned by police in Stockholm and denied the allegations. Assange was granted permission by Swedish authorities to fly back to the U.K.  

November: A Swedish court ruled that the investigation should be reopened and Assange should be detained for questioning on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion. An international arrest warrant is issued by Swedish police through Interpol.

Wikileaks releases its cache of more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables.  

December: Assange presents himself to London police and appears at an extradition hearing where he is remanded in custody. Assange is granted conditional bail at the High Court in London after his supporters pay £240,000 in cash and sureties.

2011

February: A British judge rules Assange should be extradited to Sweden but Wikileaks found vows to fight the decision.

April:  A cache of classified U.S. military documents is released by Wikileaks, including intelligence assessments on nearly all of the 779 people who are detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

November: Assange loses High Court appeal against the decision to extradite him.

2012

June: Assange enters the Ecuadorian embassy in London requesting political asylum. 

August: Assange is granted political asylum by Ecuador.

2013

June: Assange tells a group of journalists he will not leave the embassy even if sex charges against him are dropped out of fear he will be extradited to the U.S.

2015

August: Swedish prosecutors drop investigation into some of the sex allegations against Assange due to time restrictions. The investigation into suspected rape remains active.

2016

July: Wikileaks begins leaking emails U.S. Democratic Party officials favoring Hillary Clinton.

November: Assange is questioned over the sex allegation at the Ecuadorian Embassy in the presence of Sweden’s assistant prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and police inspector Cecilia Redell. The interview spans two days. 

2017

January: Barack Obama agrees to free whistleblower Chelsea Manning from prison. Her pending release prompts speculation Assange will end his self-imposed exile after Wikileaks tweeted he would agree to U.S. extradition.

April: Lenin Moreno becomes the new president of Ecuador who was known to want to improve diplomatic relations between his country and the U.S. 

May: An investigation into a sex allegation against Assange is suddenly dropped by Swedish prosecutors. 

2018

January: Ecuador confirms it has granted citizenship to Assange following his request. 

February: Assange is visited by Pamela Anderson and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel.

March: The Ecuadorian Embassy suspends Assange’s internet access because he wasn’t complying with a promise he made the previous year to ‘not send messages which entailed interference in relation to other states’.

August: U.S. Senate committee asks to interview Assange as part of their investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

September: Assange steps down as editor of WikiLeaks.

October: Assange reveals he will launch legal action against the government of Ecuador, accusing it of violating his ‘fundamental rights and freedoms’.

November: U.S. Justice Department inadvertently names Assange in a court document that says he has been charged in secret. 

2019

January: Assange’s lawyers say they are taking action to make President Trump’s administration reveal charges ‘secretly filed’ against him.

April 6: WikiLeaks tweets that a high level Ecuadorian source has told them Assange will be expelled from the embassy within ‘hours or days’. But a senior Ecuadorian official says no decision has been made to remove him from the London building. 

April 11: Assange has his diplomatic asylum revoked by Ecuador and he is arrested by the Metropolitan Police; he is remanded in custody by a judge at Westminster Magistrates Court.

April 12: He is found guilty of breaching his bail terms.

May 1: Sentenced to 11 months in jail.

May 2: Court hearing takes place over Assange’s proposed extradition to the U.S. He tells a court he does not consent to the extradition and the case is adjourned until May 30.

May 13: Swedish prosecutors reopen rape case saying they still want to question Assange. 

June 3: Swedish court rules against detaining him in absentia, setting back the extradition case.

June 12 Home Secretary Sajid Javid signs an extradition request from the US.

June 13 A hearing sets out the date for Assange’s full extradition hearing – February next year.

November  Swedish prosecutors stop investigation into an allegation of rape against Mr Assange 

November 25 – Medics say without correct medical care Assange ‘could die’ in Belmarsh 

December 13 –  Hearing in London hears he is being blocked from seeing key evidence in case

December 19 – Appears at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via video-link where his lawyer claims US bid to extradite him is ‘political’. 

June 2020: Assange failed to appear via video link for his most recent court matter in London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk