Who is Paul Pelosi?

Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, Democratic speaker of the US House of Representatives, is recovering in hospital after being ‘violently assaulted’ with a hammer during a home invasion at the couple’s residence in San Francisco, California, in the early hours of Friday morning.Mr Pelosi, 82, ‘was taken to the hospital, where he is receiving excellent medical care and is expected to make a full recovery,’ said his wife’s spokesman Drew Hammill, who said the speaker herself was not present when the incident took place at their home in the city’s exclusive Pacific Heights area.Mr Hammill added that a 32-year-old suspect had been taken into custody by city police officers, who are investigating the motivation for the assault, although it is understood to have been ‘targeted’.In a statement, US Capitol Police said special agents with the department’s California field office were assisting the FBI and San Francisco Police Department with a ‘joint investigation’ into the break-in.Paul Francis Pelosi Sr was born in San Francisco on 15 April 1940, the youngest of three boys born to wholesale druggist John Pelosi and his wife Corrine.He attended St Ignatius High School in the Bay Area before graduating from Malvern Preparatory School in Pennsylvania and attending Georgetown University in Washington DC.It was there that he first met his wife – then Baltimore’s Nancy D’Alesandro, the only daughter of long-time city mayor and Maryland congressman Thomas D’Alesandro Jr – whom he married in September 1963 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in her hometown.The couple went on to have five children – Nancy Corinne, Christine, Paul Jr, Jacqueline and Alexandra – and nine grandchildren.Mr Pelosi subsequently earned an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University and became a stockbroker.He owns and operates Financial Leasing Services Inc, a San Francisco-based real estate and venture capital investment and consulting firm and previously owned the Sacramento Mountain Lions football team.Mr Pelosi had already experienced something of a turbulent year, having been arrested for drink-driving in Napa County in May.He pleaded guilty to the charges he faced in August and was handed down a five-day jail sentence, three years probation and a $6,800 fine, a melodrama of considerable interest to America’s conservative media ecosystem.US president Joe Biden and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer are among the many who have condemned the attack on Mr Pelosi, wishing him a speedy recovery and passing on their sympathies to the speaker, who has understandably asked for privacy.