Mother of the nation JACINDA’S BABY JOY!
The Beehive is buzzing as our PM shares happy news
When Jacinda Ardern was sworn in as New Zealand’s Prime Minister last October, she promised to bring great change to the country. Just three months later, she’s done exactly that, announcing she’s expecting her first child in June.
“I will be PM and a mum,” declares the 37-year-old, who will be the first Kiwi leader to give birth while in office and only the second worldwide in modern history. “It’s a happy surprise, but a surprise nonetheless.”
With her longtime partner Clarke Gayford, 40, proudly by her side, Jacinda revealed in a press conference at her Auckland home how she discovered she was pregnant just six days before she was named prime minister and that she was suffering from morning sickness while trying to form a government.
“We’re both really happy,”
she says. “We wanted a family but weren’t sure it would happen for us, which has made this news unexpected but exciting. Clarke and I have always been clear we wanted to be parents but had been told we would need help for that to happen.”
Jacinda will take six weeks of maternity leave, in which time her deputy Winston Peters will act as PM. After that, “Clarke will be the ‘first man of fishing’ and a stayat-home dad”, she says.
“I’ll take up most of the slack because I do a lot of work from home,” the TV presenter confirms, speaking to Woman’sDay. He adds that he and Jacinda had been bracing themselves for last week’s public announcement for some time, slowly telling friends and family in the days beforehand.
“It’s going to be quite a big year,” he tells us. “I’m really excited. We had no idea, but we’d been planning a family well before she became a leader. We’ve been together for four years and we obviously bought a house together, so we had that conversation when we realised things were serious.”
Although some social media pundits were quick to point out that the pregnancy was announced exactly three months since Jacinda was made PM, Clarke tells us, “The timing is accidental!”
He and the baby will travel with Jacinda as much as possible so she can be a hands-on mother. The PM says, “We are very lucky and privileged that we’re in a position where we’ll be juggling the care roles. I am not the first woman to multitask! I’m not the first woman to have a baby. I know these are special circumstances, but there are so many women who have done this. I’m about to sympathise with them a lot as I sympathise with all women who suffered morning sickness. But we’re excited and we know together we’re going to make this work, and New Zealand is going to help us raise a First Child.
Let’sdothis!
“Obviously, I take very seriously the role of becoming a mum, as does Clarke about becoming a dad. But we equally take seriously the role I’ve taken on as Prime Minister of New Zealand ... People have placed faith in me and given me a mandate, so I have to make sure that I’m juggling both that new
role but also fulfilling my duties to New Zealand at the same time.”
Jacinda and Clarke know their baby’s sex but have decided not to make it public. She says, “We’re going to keep it to ourselves and we have a little wager as to who’s going to blow it first.”
As for names, she jokes, “I expect we’ll be like every other couple and argue about this for the next six months.”
With their three nieces and four nephews, the PM and her partner already have plenty of experience with children. The day she was sworn in as our 40th prime minister was also the day her sister Louise gave birth to a baby boy in the UK. She was joined at her swearing-in ceremony by Clarke’s two nieces, who called it “Auntie Cinda’s lady party”.
The PM announced the news of her growing family on social media by sharing a photo of three fishing hooks, a nod to Clarke’s love of fishing and a Maori symbol for fertility. Soon, she was flooded with messages of congratulations, including best wishes from Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and our former PM Helen Clark, who wrote, “Every woman should have the choice of combining family and career.”
Indeed, during the election campaign, Jacinda made international headlines when TheAMShow’s Mark Richardson questioned her on taking maternity leave while pregnant. Her response brought women from around the world to their feet.
“It is totally unacceptable in 2017 to say that women should have to answer that question in the workplace,” she fumed. “It is the woman’s decision about when they choose to have children. It should not predetermine whether or not they get the job.”