Jeremy Hunt’s ‘secret weapon’ wife shares unusual pet name for new Chancellor

Jeremy Hunt’s ‘secret weapon’ wife has shared a cute pet name that she calls the new chancellor when the pair are at home together. The Conservative MP has been appointed as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer in a dramatic day for Liz Truss ‘ Conservative party, after she sacked Kwasi Kwarteng just three weeks after his mini-budget wreaked havoc on the UK’s economy.

Hunt’s appointment was confirmed just an hour after the news that Kwarteng had been sacked, and he will now become the fourth Chancellor of 2022. While he may be a political heavyweight, he’s still affectionately known as ‘Big Rice’ at home – after being gifted the pet name by his Chinese-born wife, Lucia, who said the moniker came from her grandmother when they went to China for their wedding.

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Lucia let slip the pet name for her husband during an interview with the Mail on Sunday when she called him ‘Big Rice’.

She said he got the name when they travelled to her home city of Xi’an in China to introduce him to his future mother-in-law.

She said: “My grandma found it very hard to say ‘Jeremy’ so she would just call him the ‘big mi’. Mi means ‘rice’, so I call him ‘big rice’.”

The pair met during a meeting organised by Hotcourses – an online education business which turned then 40-year-old Mr Hunt into a multi-millionaire.

Lucia was a student recruiter at Warwick University helping to get students from China to study at the university.

They married within a year and have three children – Jack, Anna and Eleanor.

When asked if Mr Hunt could become the next prime minster, Lucia previously explained: “He is kind, he is always generous, he cares about his family and he is very strong. He never hides from challenges.”

The Oxford-educated chancellor is a Conservative MP who serves the constituency of South West Surrey.

He was first elected to parliament in the 2005 intake, and when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed a coalition following the 2010 general election, he was appointed as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport.

In 2012 he was appointed as Secretary of State for Health in the Cabinet reshuffle and was reappointed to the role with the additional responsibility of Social Care in January 2018.

In July 2018 he went on to serve as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and held the position until July 2019.

Since 2020 he had been serving as Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee.

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