Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s wife has been telling schoolgirls in London’s East End what a life in politics and the legal profession is like.

Miriam Gonzalez met 100 Year-11 and Year-10 girls at Shadwell’s Bishop Challoner’s Secondary on Thursday to reveal things about her life and the inner workings of the European parliament.

The pupils, including girls from Whitechapel’s Mulberry Secondary, quizzed the mother-of-three about her role as wife of the Liberal Democrat leader—and how she met Nick.

Spanish-born Miriam, daughter of a late senator in Spain’s parliament, is a leading international lawyer in her own right, a partner in a law firm where she heads EU relations.

She met Nick in Belgium, while working as an advisor to the EU on trade law, economic relations and the Middle East, the pupils heard.

Miriam dated Nick for several years in Brussels before they decided to marry in 2000 and now have three sons. She insisted on Spanish names if they were to have the family name ‘Clegg’.

A Spanish newspaper asked her during the 2012 General Election campaign whether she would quit her job. She told the paper: “I would have no problem if Nick were Prime Minister.”

In the event, the girls learned, she continued in her role as an EU lawyer and a vice-president of the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian council in the UK.