Julian Assange secretly fathered two sons while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Gabriel, aged two, and his one-year-old brother Max were conceived while their father was hiding out to avoid extradition to America, where he faces espionage charges over the leaking of thousands of classified US intelligence documents.

At the time, Assange, 48, was also wanted in Sweden where he was accused of rape. He has always denied the sex allegations, which have now been dropped.

The boys' mother is 37-year-old South African-born lawyer Stella Morris, who fell in love with the controversial WikiLeaks founder five years ago while visiting him to work on a legal bid to halt the extraditions.

The couple have been engaged since 2017.

Julian Assange secretly fathered two sons while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Pictured: The WikiLeaks founder with first son Gabriel

At the time that Gabriel was conceived in 2016, Assange had been inside the embassy, close to Harrods, for four years and was believed to be under constant surveillance by American security services.

However, a round-the-clock policing operation by Scotland Yard had been withdrawn following a public backlash over the spiralling £13.2 million cost.

It is understood the couple also managed to keep their relationship and the birth of their children secret from Ecuadorian diplomats and officials who had given Assange refuge.

Australian-born Assange is currently being held at the high-security Belmarsh Prison.

He has been there since last April when police dragged him from the embassy following a seven-year stand-off.

South African-born lawyer Stella Morris (right) fell in love with the controversial WikiLeaks founder five years ago while visiting him to work on a legal bid to halt the extraditions. The couple have been engaged since 2017

The revelation about his secret family emerged last week in court papers, seen by The Mail on Sunday, about the US extradition case and an attempt by Assange to secure bail as Covid-19 sweeps through the prison population.

Now, in a world exclusive interview, Miss Morris reveals how:

Assange watched both children being born in London hospitals via live video link and met Gabriel when he was smuggled into the embassy;

They believe American intelligence agencies tried to steal Gabriel's DNA from a nappy after becoming suspicious that Assange was his father;

The couple will marry behind bars unless Assange is released;

Both boys, who are British citizens, have visited their father in prison;

Tracy Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort (the former actress Tracy Ward), and British rapper M.I.A are the children's godmothers.

The news will come as a bombshell to Assange's friends and enemies since he was widely understood to have led a near-monastic life since entering the embassy in 2012.

Instead, as The Mail on Sunday's exclusive pictures show, he was a hands-on father, playing with his baby son under the noses of his increasingly hostile Ecuadorian hosts and the 24-hour a day scrutiny of US intelligence agencies.

At the time that Gabriel was conceived in 2016, Assange had been inside the Ecuadorian embassy, close to Harrods, for four years and was believed to be under constant surveillance by American security services. Pictured: Assange with Gabriel as a baby

The revelation about his secret family emerged last week in court papers, seen by The Mail on Sunday. Pictured: Miss Morris and Assange's first son Gabriel, now aged two

The news will come as a bombshell to Assange's friends and enemies since he was widely understood to have led a near-monastic life since entering the embassy in 2012. Pictured: The couple's second son Max, aged one

Miss Morris is revealing their long-term relationship and the existence of their sons because she fears Assange's life is at serious risk if he remains in Belmarsh, where one inmate has already died of Covid-19.

She is pleading for her fiance to be released under Government plans to free thousands of prisoners to quell the spread of the deadly virus between bars.

Miss Morris says Assange is doubly vulnerable because he suffers from a chronic lung condition exacerbated by his years inside the embassy and has mental health issues which become more severe as a result of isolation.

She said last night: 'I love Julian deeply and I am looking forward to marrying him.

'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 has been fiercely protective of me and has done his best to shield me from the nightmares of his life.

'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.

'Now I have to speak out because I can see that his life is on the brink.

'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.

'Mentally, I do not think he will survive further enforced isolation either.

'He is effectively in solitary confinement, in a cell for up for 23 and a half hours a day with no access to us, his family, or the psychiatric help he needs.'

Yesterday marked exactly a year since Assange was evicted from the embassy where he had been given political asylum, putting him beyond the reach of America.

The US wants him in court to face 17 charges under the Espionage Act and one of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

All relate to the leak of 700,000 classified documents handed to WikiLeaks by former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning (then Bradley Manning) in 2010.

Washington says the leak endangered the lives of American agents and their sources working in the field. If found guilty, he could face 175 years in prison.

Miss Morris is revealing their long-term relationship and the existence of their sons because she fears Assange's life is at serious risk if he remains in Belmarsh, where one inmate has already died of Covid-19

Miss Morris had an international upbringing with her theatre director mother and urban planner father

The family spent time in Sweden meaning she was a fluent Swedish speaker, able to help defend Assange against the allegations, which were rescinded last year

It is understood that Assange's right to a family life with Miss Morris, a Swedish national who has lived and worked here for almost 20 years, and his two British-born children, will play a part in WikiLeaks' legal bid to keep him in the UK.

For the past decade, Assange's legal, political and diplomatic imbroglio has dominated the headlines, as has speculation about his links to celebrity supporters such as Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson.

Now it seems the flirtatious gossip disguised the fact he was in a committed relationship with a member of his own legal team.

Miss Morris first met Assange in 2011 for a cup of tea at London's Frontline Club, a popular media and legal haunt, when her friend Jennifer Robinson, WikiLeaks' lawyer, put out a request for help fighting the Swedish claims.

Miss Morris had an international upbringing with her theatre director mother and urban planner father.

The family spent time in Sweden meaning she was a fluent Swedish speaker, able to help defend Assange against the allegations, which were rescinded last year.

She is also a fluent Spanish speaker, a skill which would become equally critical when Assange sought asylum in a South American embassy the following year.

She has a degree in law and politics from London's prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies and took her MSc at Oxford where she was a noted scholar.

She became a member of Assange's inner circle in the embassy, officially changing her name from Sara Gonzalez Devant to Stella Morris so she could maintain a lower profile while researching and drafting legal documents for WikiLeaks.

Miss Morris first met Assange in 2011 for a cup of tea at London's Frontline Club, a popular media and legal haunt, when her friend Jennifer Robinson, WikiLeaks' lawyer, put out a request for help fighting the Swedish claims

Miss Morris became a member of Assange's inner circle in the embassy, officially changing her name from Sara Gonzalez Devant to Stella Morris so she could maintain a lower profile while researching and drafting legal documents for WikiLeaks. Pictured: Gabriel playing with toys

She said: 'At the beginning it was a working relationship. I was in the embassy every day and Julian became a friend.

'Over the years he went from being a person I enjoyed seeing to the man I wanted to see most in the world.

'His public image is not what I fell in love with, it's the real person behind it.

'He is a generous and tender and loving partner. Our relationship began early in 2015.

'Despite all the public attention we managed to carve a space for a private life and, because it was serious for both of us, we began to look ahead to our years together after the embassy.

'He asked me to marry him in 2017 and I chose a diamond ring, which I showed him online, that we both loved. We even hoped we'd find a way of marrying in the embassy.

'We wanted a family and we lamented the impossibility of having a baby, given our situation. It felt like a tragedy for us.

'We talked about it many times and then Julian said, "People take difficult decisions in difficult situations and we will manage".

'The best way I can describe it is by saying it was like being in a war zone and that in wars people can and do fall in love despite everything.

'Being in love, getting engaged, having children while he was in the embassy, it was an act of rebellion.

'Also, at the time that we started trying for a baby, it seemed that life was set to change for the better for Julian.

'The United Nations were supporting him, we thought he would not be prosecuted by the Americans, and it would only be a matter of time before he was free.

'We could see a future in which we'd be an ordinary family.'

Both Assange and Miss Morris were overjoyed to discover that she was pregnant but she went through her antenatal care alone.

'It was lonely, challenging,' she admits, adding that she smuggled scans of their unborn son into the embassy to share with Assange.

'She gave birth, having been induced, in a London hospital and took Gabriel to meet his father when he was just a week old.

'Seeing Julian holding his child made all the madness of his existence fade,' she says.

'Julian brought up his oldest son, mostly on his own, from when he was a toddler to adulthood so his default mode as a father is hands-on.

'He's warm, easygoing and, above all, proud. Our boys are happy children, they love seeing their daddy's face and hearing his voice.'

Miss Morris feared the American security agencies watching Assange would be suspicious of her pregnancy and newborn baby.

Miss Morris feared the American security agencies watching Assange would be suspicious of her pregnancy and newborn Gabriel

She tried to disguise her bump in billowing clothes and then, when Gabriel was born, he was carried in and out of the embassy in the arms of a friend who passed the child off as his own

Miss Morris brought baby Gabriel to see his father at the Ecuadorian Embassy. Pictured: Assange in the embassy with Gabriel as a baby

She tried to disguise her bump in billowing clothes and then, when Gabriel was born, he was carried in and out of the embassy in the arms of a friend who passed the child off as his own.

Miss Morris would always take care to arrive either before or after her son.

In January 2018, a guard working for the Spanish security firm manning the embassy warned her of a plot to steal one of Gabriel's nappies to secure his DNA and test his paternity.

'Out of disgust, he decided to tell me what he had been asked to do,' Miss Morris says.

Assange did not meet his newest son until May when Miss Morris was allowed into Belmarsh with both boys

'He had been given instructions to follow me outside the embassy and steal our baby's nappy from inside it so they could analyse the DNA.

He warned me not to bring the baby into the embassy again.

'I was nauseous. I knew there was spying but this felt ruthless, as if there were no boundaries.

'It wasn't just an invasion of Gabriel's privacy, it made me think he wasn't safe.

'It's hard to talk about it without sounding like it was some insane plot but that is the reality of Julian's world. It can be a sinister place.'

Despite their concerns, the couple decided to have a second child.

Miss Morris became pregnant with Max but as her pregnancy progressed, a new Ecuadorian government became hostile to Assange, banning visitors and curtailing his telephone and online access.

She was unable to see him from November 2018 until after Max arrived in February last year.

By then intimate footage of Max's birth, shot on a GoPro camera by a friend, had been seized by the US along with Assange's legal documents from his quarters inside the embassy. Pictured: Assange in a prison van as he leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in January

Assange did not meet his newest son until May when Miss Morris was allowed into Belmarsh with both boys.

By then intimate footage of Max's birth, shot on a GoPro camera by a friend, had been seized by the US along with Assange's legal documents from his quarters inside the embassy.

'The first time Julian saw Max he'd been held in isolation and his mental health was already suffering,' she says.

'But as Max dozed in his father's arms there was this tiny glimpse of normality for us all.

'Even so, seeing Julian in prison is very jarring and my heart sinks that I have to take my little ones to visit their father in there.

'It's not something I envisioned when we started our family. There's nothing I regret – but I want my boys to have their father back.'

At present Miss Morris, like all family members of prisoners, is banned from visiting because of Covid-19. Pictured: Mr Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in 2015

Miss Morris said she wants 'her boys' to 'have their father back'

Miss Morris is currently living with extended family in London.

She is being supported by Assange's mother Christine Assange and his father John Shipton, who are both delighted by their new grandchildren.

Mrs Assange has described them as 'bringing joy and light to our darkest hours'.

The boys' godmothers are also helping.

Oscar and Grammy-nominated singer M.I.A is Gabriel's godmother, while former actress Tracy Ward, now the activist aristocrat Tracy Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, is Max's.

At present Miss Morris, like all family members of prisoners, is banned from visiting because of Covid-19.

She is anxious that Assange is also unable to see his legal team or prepare for his extradition hearing next month.

'For a long time I have feared I will lose Julian to suicide if there is no way in which he can stop his extradition to the US,' she says.

'I now fear I may lose him for different reasons, and sooner, to the virus. He doesn't have a voice at present but I do. That's why I am using it.'