Gayford on rumours and raising a baby with Ardern
Clarke Gayford has revealed he’s had to tone down his social media behaviour after being smeared by rumours.
The Prime Minister’s partner was the subject of a whispering campaign that forced police national headquarters to issue a public statement saying Gayford was not, and had not been, under investigation for any offence.
Gayford, in an interview with British newspaper the said the saga had forced him to make changes. “If I talk about it now, it just pours more petrol on it.”
But he had felt compelled to rein in having “a good rant on Facebook” and had felt “like a right chump” having to edit his own Wikipedia page to remove another false rumour — that he had once been a police cadet, said the
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s baby is due on June 17 and Gayford said he had received plenty of parenting advice, including from former United States President Barack Obama during his visit to New Zealand (his advice was: Don’t panic, it’s okay to make mistakes).
Ardern plans to return to work after a six-week break, leaving Gayford literally holding the baby and learning how to function on little sleep. “I’m hoping my years of DJ’ing will pay off,” he joked.
The couple have yet to reveal the baby’s gender and Gayford said he had started thinking about the little person on the way.
“With each trip to your scans, where you see a little face developing, you start to think about all the projections you have on them as a person,” he told the
He and Ardern had yet to have a proper discussion about raising a child in such a high- public role.
“At the end of the day, we’re just New Zealanders. We all know each other. Life still goes on as per normal.”
Asked if they’d thought about what their child would inherit, he spoke of “a strong line of Gayford noses”.
And temperament? He has read how an expectant mother “should be calm and clearheaded with thoughts of bunnies and fields” as he watches Ardern debating in Parliament.
“I’m hoping the child picks up some of mum’s temperament.”
Gayford said his two sisters were his parenting role models. One has three boys under 4, the other two girls. “And my parents, of course.”