Andrej Babis, the former Czech PM and leader of the opposition ANO party, announced on Instagram yesterday that he and his wife Monika have separated after roughly 30 years together, including seven years of marriage.
They have two children together – daughter Vivien and son Frederik. Babis is married for the second time; his first wife was Beata Adamovicova.
“After thirty years together, full of ups, downs and unforgettable experiences, Monika and I have decided that our paths are now diverging. As parents of two wonderful adult children, our greatest wish is to preserve family harmony,” wrote Babis, who was finance minister and deputy prime minister from 2014 to 2017 and prime minister from 2017 to 2021.
“Our family ties remain strong, and although our personal paths have changed, our love and respect for each other and our children remain the same,” he added.
Babis, now 69, married his longtime partner Monika, 49, who by then had been using the surname Babisova for a long time, at the Capi hnizdo (Stork’s Nest) recreation and conference centre south of Prague in July 2017. The open-air wedding was attended by 200 guests. During the wedding, a car drove repeatedly around the site in protest, emitting slogans criticising the ANO leader.
Monika Babisova accompanied the former prime minister on some of his business trips, including to the United States, Israel and France. While she was supporting her husband during his presidential candidacy last year, a police investigation was launched following claims she had received a threatening letter with a bullet. The police qualified the case as dangerous and threatening, but eventually dropped it because the suspect had died. The bullet, according to police, was not live.
