By Mail On Sunday Reporter
Sunday, June 05, 2011
His partner has often talked of her desire to have children. So TV historian Niall Ferguson must be a happy man after news that Somali-born feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali is expecting.
The 41-year-old writer has told friends in America she is five months pregnant.
Ferguson, 47, already has three children by his wife of 17 years, former newspaper editor Sue Douglas.
Niall Ferguson and Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali are expecting their first child together. The historian already has three children by his first wife
The couple are not divorced but split up after the historian met Ms Ali in May 2009 at Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People In The World party.
Ms Ali has often talked of her wish to have children.
In her latest memoirs, Nomad, a follow-up to her bestseller, Infidel, she includes an epilogue called Letter To My Unborn Daughter.
In it she writes: ‘I have struggled whether to have you on my own or to marry your father . . . having a child is a personal choice. It’s not only a personal choice; it’s a very selfish choice. I want to have you for me, for my delight, to enrich my existence.’
She also writes how she asked her doctor to freeze her eggs but he refused, saying she was still a healthy 37-year-old at the time.
Ms Ali’s friend said: ‘We’ve known for a long time that she wanted children so it’s really good news. She’s now five months and she’s very excited.’
Ms Ali lives under a fatwa after she wrote the script for a film that criticised Islam and resulted in the assassination of its director, Theo van Gogh, in 2004.
She suffered genital mutilation as a child and fled to Holland to avoid an arranged marriage.
She later became a successful lawyer and MP. Ferguson has produced 16 books and five TV series in the past 16 years.
His estranged wife lives with their children, aged 15, 14 and ten. She refused to comment last night.