WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is now free to return to his family, including his oldest son, Daniel, and two young boys with his wife, Stella Assange. Having served five years in London’s top-security Belmarsh Prison, British authorities released Assange after he struck a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors. Per the deal, the Australian journalist pleaded guilty to a single felony of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information.
Assange’s WikiLeaks, a whistleblower media organization, released thousands of classified U.S. military documents in 2010 and 2011. The leaked information from the country’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq disclosed critical issues such as human rights violations and civilian deaths. Other leaks included thousands of unpublished diplomatic cables. The U.S. officials claimed these releases threatened their national security and endangered the lives of their personnel.
Julian Assange’s ultimate arrest took place in 2019 when he was dragged out of Ecuador’s embassy. Until now, the WikiLeaks founder had been fighting his extradition to the U.S. and finally struck a plea deal. During his stint in the British prison, he married Stella Assange, a South African-born lawyer. Besides his oldest son, Daniel, Julian Assange shares two young children with his wife, Stella Assange.
Who is Julian Assange’s oldest son Daniel Assange?
According to The Atlantic, Julian Assange’s oldest son, Daniel, was 20 years old in 2010 and living in Australia. BBC reported in 2020 that Daniel is a software designer there and now has two younger siblings, Gabriel and Max. The latter two are Julian and Stella Assange’s young sons. The couple had kept their children in secrecy until 2020 when Stella broke the news of their relationship and their young boys.
Julian and Stella first met in 2011 after she joined his legal team. The next year, Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London to elude extradition to Sweden on sex-crime charges. He remained there for seven years. During that time, Stella visited him almost every day. She later revealed that they started a relationship in 2015 and got engaged two years later.
Assange saw the birth of his sons via video link and often saw them at the embassy where they visited him. Then, in 2019, authorities arrested the WikiLeaks founder at the Ecuadorian embassy and took him into custody. In a subsequent WikiLeaks YouTube video, Stella Assange claimed that they deliberately formed a family “to break down those walls around him and imagine a life beyond that prison.”
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remained in Britain’s HMP Belmarsh where he met his young sons, Gabriel and Max, during visits. In 2022, Assange married Stella in the top-security facility after fathering two sons with her.
BBC reported that Stella Assange had claimed she was “very happy and very sad,” calling her partner’s imprisonment “cruel and inhuman.” Stella stated, “I love Julian with all my heart, and I wish he were here. The love we have for each other carries us through. He’s the most amazing person.”
ABC News reported that Julian Assange and Stella’s sons have only known him in prison or some other form of captivity. But following his release, he will return to his native Australia to reunite with his family. Stella claimed “he was under house arrest” when they first met. She added, “It will be the first time that I get to see him as a fully free man.” Gabriel and Max are now seven and five years old, respectively.
Several movies and documentaries have revisited the case against Julian Assange, who is now free. We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange: Revolution Now are a few of the popular works.
