On Valentine's Day, a Big First for Australia

No other prime minister has gotten engaged while in office before Anthony Albanese
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 15, 2024 8:03 AM CST
Aussie PM Proposes on Valentine's Day
Anthony Albanese, right, kisses partner Jodie Haydon in Sydney on May 22, 2022.   (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

Who knows how many people proposed or got hitched this past Valentine's Day, but one name in particular stands out: Anthony Albanese, Australia's first prime minister to get engaged while in office, reports Reuters. "She said yes," Albanese wrote on X after his successful ask, showing a photo of himself and his beaming fiancee, financial services professional Jodie Haydon. "Jodie and I are excited and we're thrilled," Albanese, 60, said in a video posted to Instagram. "It's wonderful that I've found a partner who I want to spend the rest of my life with."

Albanese reportedly popped the question on a balcony at his Canberra residence, following a Valentine's Day dinner at an Italian restaurant. The couple met at a Melbourne event and have now been together for about three years, notes the AP. "I slid into his DMs," Haydon, said to be in her mid-40s, joked with News Corp of their correspondence after that first meeting, per the Guardian. "I think I said in that direct message, 'Hey, we're both single.'"

Albanese said he put a lot of thought into his proposal and even helped design Haydon's engagement ring. He's also not sure if the two will walk down the aisle before Australia's next election, set to take place sometime between August and May 2025. "We'll now have those discussions between us, which I think people would understand, and sort out those details, but we just want to live in the moment at this point," he said at a Wednesday presser. Albanese has an adult son with his first wife, a marriage that ended in divorce after 19 years. (More Anthony Albanese stories.)

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