PM Jacinda Ardern announces her shock resignation at the Labour Party caucus retreat in Napier saying she 'no longer has that bit extra in the tank'. Video / Mark Mitchell
Announcing her departure, Jacinda Ardern said she was looking forward to her daughter’s first day of school, while to Clarke Gayford she said: “Let’s get married.”
Ardern told the Herald last November that her wedding plans for this summer had been scuppered again after almost four years of delays.
“Barring us doing something spontaneous, I can’t see how that’s going to happen [before the election].
“I can assure you I put all of my effort in planning into running the country as opposed to my own wedding planning,” she said, laughing.
Jacinda Ardern embraces partner Clarke Gayford after announcing her resignation. Photo / Mark Mitchell
When Ardern gave birth to Neve she was one of only two women to give birth while in office.
In an interview with Woman’s Weekly last month, Ardern said she consistently thinks about being a mum “and how I make sure that I’m there when Neve is in her teens”.
“They say they don’t need you, but they do. I think about that and how I can make sure that I’m there.”
In 2018, baby Neve watched as Ardern spoke to the UN General Assembly hall for the first time for the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit.
Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford. Photo / File
It was just months after Neve was born in June 2018.
Ardern has at times taken to social media to share some experiences of parenthood, including baking a ladybug cake for Neve’s 4th birthday last year.
Speaking yesterday, Ardern said being prime minister “has been the greatest honour of my life and I want to thank New Zealanders for the enormous privilege of leading the country for the last five and a half years”.
But, she said, the role had “taken a lot out of me”.
Now the trials and tribulations of leading the country through the Covid-19 pandemic are over and the lockdown disruptions to her wedding are distant memories, she may finally be able to marry Neve’s father.
Jacinda Ardern said she was looking forward to her daughter’s first day of school, and to Clarke Gayford she said “let’s get married”. Photo / Bevan Conley
A spokesman for Ardern revealed the couple became engaged over Easter in 2019.
The Prime Minister then revealed live on air on Coast Radio she and Gayford have “finally got a date” for their wedding later that month.
However, come 2022 Ardern called off the couple’s wedding as the country moved into the red light setting on January 23.
She and Gayford were initially planning to get married last summer in Gisborne.
