Charlotte Johnson Wahl, mother of Boris Johnson, dies at 79

In this Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021 file photo, from left, Britain's Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak attend a media briefing in Downing Street, London. Johnson is set to announce how his government plans to control the coronavirus during the fall and winter. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP, File)

LONDON -

Painter Charlotte Johnson Wahl, the mother of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has died aged 79.

Wahl died "suddenly and peacefully" at a London hospital on Monday, according to a death notice in The Times of London.

Boris Johnson once described his mother as the "supreme authority" in his large, close-knit family. She was a successful painter of portraits and landscapes.

Wahl and first husband Stanley Johnson divorced in 1979. She later married American academic Nicholas Wahl, who died in 1996.

She is survived by four children -- the prime minister, journalist Rachel Johnson, former politician Jo Johnson and environmentalist Leo Johnson -- and 13 grandchildren.