BABY IN THE BEEHIVE
THE PM AND HER PARTNER SHARE THEIR JOY WITH THE NATION
PM Jacinda’s wonderful news
It’s official! Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will not only lead the country in 2018, but will become a first-time mum.
In a history-making moment, the PM (37) has revealed the life-changing news that she and her partner Clarke Gayford will be welcoming their first child in June this year with a simple image posted on social media, two fish hooks cradling a miniature fish hook.
“This year we’ll be joining the many parents out there who wear two hats,” the post read. “I’ll be prime minister AND a mum while Clarke (40) will be ‘first man of fishing’ and stayat-home dad.”
Upon the announcement, a positively glowing Jacinda and Clarke fronted a throng of media to answer countless questions.
“We’re both really happy. We wanted a family, but weren’t sure it would happen for us, which has made this news unexpected but exciting,” she said, revealing the couple’s fertility struggles. The pair also divulged they learned of the pregnancy on October 13, just six days before finding out Jacinda was to take the nation’s top job.
Jacinda’s news has been widely viewed as a positive step for modern women, indicating that family and career can work together. Congratulations rang out from fellow politicians and world leaders alike, with Jacinda’s mentor and close friend, Dame Annette King (70), saying the announcement is good for women, politics and New Zealand.
“Jacinda has wanted to have children for as long as I’ve known her. She’s just a natural with babies – they’re a magnet to her. Wherever we went, if there was a baby, that baby got the attention first,” she laughed.
And former prime minister Dame Jenny Shipley (65), who was a mother while in office herself, was full of support for the mum-to-be.”A wonderful choice of our outstanding young woman leader who is also going to choose to be a parent. It will bring special insight, I suspect, in her work and joy to her family,” she remarked.
“She can do both, and frankly it’s wonderful to see that we’ve got diversity in the Parliament and a third woman prime minister who is young and still in her childbearing years.”
It’s no doubt the country will be taking bets on if the “First Baby” will be a boy or a girl, although the pair have said they are keeping the gender a secret. Speculation is mounting, though, that Jacinda may have let the cat out of the bag during a radio discussion on how she will reveal her newborn.
“I’ll be hauling her around the country a bit, so it will be hard to hide,” she said at the time, before adamantly saying she had been heard wrong and did not in fact reveal her baby’s gender.
Only time will tell, but until then, a big congratulations from the Weekly team!