Wikileaks founder Julian Assange fathered two children while inside the Ecuadorean embassy

Wikileaks boss Julian Assange secretly fathered two kids in the Ecuadorean embassy with a lawyer who fell in love with him, according to reports.In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, lawyer Stella Morris admitted to raising Gabriel, two, and his one-year-old brother Max while Mr Assange hid to avoid extradition to the US, The Sun reports.
Mr Assange, 48, is currently being held in Belmarsh prison in London after being dragged out of the Ecuadorean embassy last year.
The controversial WikiLeaks founder is awaiting an extradition hearing on behalf of the United States, where he faces 17 espionage charges for leaking classified documents.
South African born lawyer Stella Morris told the paper she decided to come forward over grave concerns for his health, as the coronavirus sweeps through prisons across the country.
In a statement to the courts supporting an application for bail, Ms Morris revealed that she met Mr Assange in 2011 when she was a legal researcher, and was asked to look into the Swedish legal theory and practice.
They reportedly began a relationship in 2015, and have been engaged since 2017.
Their first child, Gabriel, was born in 2017, and their second, Max, was born in February 2019 while his birth was filmed on a GoPro and the footage sent to Mr Assange.
Among the children’s godmothers are rapper MIA and The Duchess of Beaufort, as well as actor Tracey Ward.
Ms Morris told the Mail on Sunday: “I love Julian deeply and I am looking forward to marrying him.
“I have lived quietly and privately, raising Gabriel and Max on my own and longing for the day we could be together as a family.”
Later in the interview, Ms Morris added that she took Gabriel to meet his father when he was just a week old.
She said: “Seeing Julian holding his child made all the madness of his existence fade.
“Our boys are happy children, they love seeing their daddy’s face and hearing his voice.”
Ms Morris said that falling in love with him and having children while he was at the embassy was “an act of rebellion”, and she hoped for “a future in which we’d be an ordinary family”.
However, the lawyer said she is terrified of Mr Assange’s current health condition, and claimed he would not survive if infected with the coronavirus.
“Now I have to speak out because I can see that his life is on the brink. Over the past five years I have discovered that love makes the most intolerable circumstances seem bearable but this is different – I am now terrified I will not see him alive again.
“Julian’s poor physical health puts him at serious risk, like many other vulnerable people, and I don’t believe he will survive infection with coronavirus.”
One prisoner in Belmarsh has died, and a number of prison officers are off sick, suspected of having the virus, say his friends.
Freelance video journalist Vaughan Smith, who is friends with Mr Assange and has spoken to him on the phone, wrote on Facebook that Belmarsh prison is “barely functioning”.
“The virus is ripping through the prison,” he added.
Mr Assange remains in solitary confinement in the prison, for 23 hours a day and all visits have stopped, according to Ms Morris.
His extradition hearing is fixed for May 18 after a court rejected calls for an adjournment until September after his legal team said there were “insuperable” difficulties preparing his case because of COVID-19.
Ms Morris is living in London with her extended family, and cannot visit Mr Assange due to the coronavirus.
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission