Born in South Africa, she is 40 years old and is a human rights lawyer and expert in international law. She and Julian married in March 2022 and have two children, born in 2017 and 2019.
Assange kisses his wife Stella upon arrival in Australia – Photo: Edgar Su/Reuters
Stella has worked on Assange’s legal team since 2011. According to her official website, in 2023 she will receive the Pimentel Fonseca Prize in Naples, Italy; and the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse, awarded in her and her husband’s name by The Hist at Trinity College Dublin.
The lawyer lived in Botswana and Lesotho (African countries) before moving to Europe, where she lived in Sweden and Spain, as well as the United Kingdom, where she attended college.
Stella, considered an above-average student, said in an interview with the British newspaper “The Guardian” in 2022 that, at just over 20 years old, she secured a place on a leadership course in Canada. “It’s the Canadian equivalent of the Rhodes Scholarship,” she said. A year after completing it, she went to work with Assange’s legal team.
According to “The Guardian,” Stella’s parents were part of the Medu Art Ensemble, which played a key role in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Her father, a Swedish citizen of Cuban descent, is an urban architect and artist; her mother, Spanish, is a theater director.
The lawyer known today as Stella Assange’s official birth name is Sarah. In the same interview with “The Guardian”, she said she changed her name to Stella Morris in 2012 to protect herself and her family when she worked with Assange.
Julian Assange disembarks from plane after arriving in Australia
According to her, she chose a common nickname and Stella “because she liked it,” the newspaper reports. She said, today, everyone except her parents calls her Stella.
Stella and Julian got married in 2022 at a high-security prison in southeast London (their dresses were created by designer Vivienne Westwood – he wore a plaid kilt and she wore a long white dress with puffed sleeves), according to the newspaper “The New York Times.”
The small ceremony was attended by four guests: two official witnesses and two guards.
According to what he said at the time, his children, British citizens, joined the ceremony via video call.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange got married in prison
Julian Assange became known worldwide for founding an activist group called WikiLeaks in 2006. In the following years, the organization leaked nearly 700,000 classified documents from the United States, angering American officials.
As a result, he faced numerous charges and spent seven years in refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London before being arrested. He was officially released this week after years of legal battles and a deal with the United States.
