It was meant to be a sweet Valentine to his wife - but Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's message to Lucy has enraged the proponents of marriage equality.
Mr Turnbull posted the message on Facebook at 9am yesterday and by lunchtime it had garnered over 25,000 likes and almost 1000 comments.
"When I first asked Lucy to marry me she said, 'Let's wait until we grow up.' Well we didn't wait long and now it is almost impossible to imagine, let alone remember, what it was like not to be together, so much so that I have a much clearer sense of 'Lucy and me' than I do of 'me'," the message stated.
The post was accompanied by an undated picture, clearly taken in the early years of their relationship.
Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull married in 1980 while he was studying at Oxford University. Malcolm was 25 at the time and Lucy was eight days shy of her 22nd birthday. They met when he was 23 and she was 19.