Love Down Under: Australian PM announces engagement with girlfriend on Valentine’s Day

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced his engagement to girlfriend Jodie Hayden on Valentine’s Day on Thursday, after “she said yes” to his carefully planned marriage proposal.

“It’s a great pleasure to be able to share this news with people,” a smiling and slightly shy Albanese said after walking hand-in-hand with Hayden from the prime minister’s official residence. “It’s wonderful that I have found a partner with whom I want to spend the rest of my life.”

First Australian Prime Minister to be busy in office

Albanese, who met Hayden at a Melbourne business dinner in 2020, is believed to be the first Australian prime minister to hold the engagement while in office. Hayden thanked everyone for wishing him so warmly today, from our friends, to our family, to people we don’t know. It’s been overwhelming but beautiful.”

“Love is a beautiful thing. I’m so happy for you both!” Foreign Minister Penny Wong posted. Albanese revealed that “a lot of planning and thought went into everything, obviously from the Valentine’s Day date, to the ring that I helped design.”

Albanese, nicknamed Elbow, joined the centre-left Labor Party while in high school and later became deeply involved in the painful world of student politics at the University of Sydney. He was sworn in as Prime Minister in May 2022.

The Australian leader was elected to Parliament in 1996 and in his maiden speech thanked his mother, Maryanne Ellery, for raising him under difficult circumstances. The couple lived in public housing in Sydney during Albanese’s childhood and his single mother often struggled to make ends meet.

(with agency input)