Jacinda Ardern finally reveals the date of her summer wedding to Clarke Gayford


Jacinda Ardern finally reveals the date of her wedding – after delaying planning the big day while steering New Zealand through the pandemic

  • The New Zealand prime minister has revealed her wedding will be in the summer
  • She and Clarke Gayford have been engaged for two years and together for nine 
  • They have one daughter together, two-year-old Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford

Jacinda Ardern has finally set a date for her summer wedding, two and a half years years after her partner of nine years popped the question.

The New Zealand prime minister revealed on Coast Radio on Wednesday morning that she and Clarke Gayford, 44, are going to tie the knot ‘this coming summer’.

She declined to divulge the actual day, but the big day will likely be some time between December 2021 and February 2022.

‘When I say we’ve got a date, that doesn’t mean we’ve told anyone yet. I feel like we should probably put some invites out,’ Ms Ardern, 40, said.

Pictured: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with her fiancee Clarke Gayford - the pair have been together for nine years

Pictured: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with her fiancee Clarke Gayford – the pair have been together for nine years

Pictured: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford with their daughter Neve in June, 2019, in Auckland

Pictured: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford with their daughter Neve in June, 2019, in Auckland

While the wedding size and scale is yet to be determined, the Kiwi leader counts international celebrities among her close personal friends, including members of the British Royal family.

The couple met in 2012 after an awards ceremony and have one daughter together, two-year-old Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford.

They had planned to wed earlier but were set back by a string of tragedies including the Christchurch terror attack and the White Island volcano eruption in 2019, and the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

When asked how the wedding plans were going by AM Show host Duncan Garner just last month, Ms Ardern laughed and said: ‘Not well’. 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her daughter Neve Gayford are pictured at the upper Treaty grounds at Waitangi on February 4, 2020 in Waitangi, New Zealand

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her daughter Neve Gayford are pictured at the upper Treaty grounds at Waitangi on February 4, 2020 in Waitangi, New Zealand

‘I’ve spent more time on housing plans than wedding plans,’ she said.

Ms Ardern and her office keep a tight rein on her private life, usually shunning questions that stray from her role as prime minister.

In the past year, she has also firmed up a practice of declining all internationally-based media requests, save for a few Australian television appearances last month when the trans-Tasman bubble was confirmed.

Since her election win, Ms Ardern has decided to conduct more light-touch interviews with FM radio stations and magazines, which tend to stray into the personal.

In a long-form interview with Kiwi magazine Thrive, Ms Ardern revealed she got through last year – managing New Zealand through the COVID-19 pandemic and winning October’s election – on a simple diet.

‘I live on cups of tea to be honest and blimmin bliss balls,’ she said.

Pictured: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is congratulated by her partner Clarke Gayford following her victory speech to Labour Party members at an event in Auckland in October 2020

Pictured: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is congratulated by her partner Clarke Gayford following her victory speech to Labour Party members at an event in Auckland in October 2020

‘My mother made so many bliss balls for me during the election that I was being powered by dates.’

Mr Gayford is a radio and television personality, who hosts fishing program Fish Of The Day, while acting as Neve’s primary caregiver.

‘Thank God Clarke is a morning person,’ Ms Ardern said to Thrive.

‘I don’t think I’ve talked about this before but he has consistently been the night and morning person for our daughter.

‘He will bring me a cup of tea every morning without fail. Which sounds like its a little thing but it’s not.

‘He’ll make me breakfast if I’m in a rush. He checks I’ve eaten before I’ve gone out the door and he checks in on my day.

‘He knows the bits I find hard and he’ll send a nice little text before I go into it. He’s always thinking of me.’

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