Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled out expanding his family with Jodie Haydon after the couple’s Valentine’s Day engagement.
Speaking to the Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie show on Nova radio on Wednesday morning, the PM – a 60-year-old father-of-one – shut down any questions about whether he and his new fiancée are considering having a child.
Breakfast host Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli asked: ‘Has there ever been a child conceived in the Lodge?’
Mr Albanese responded that he doesn’t know about past circumstances ‘but that isn’t going to happen’.
‘I wasn’t sure if you two were thinking ‘maybe we could start a young family,’ Wippa said.
The PM gave a short, but stern answer: ‘No.’
Anthony Albanese recently proposed to his partner Jodie Haydon and she said yes
Mr Albanese shares one child, 23-year-old son Nathan, with his ex-wife Carmel Tebbutt. The couple were married 19 years before separating in 2019, just three years before he became Prime Minister.
He was doing the radio rounds on Wednesday, also speaking to Kyle and Jackie O on KIIS FM about the engagement and upcoming wedding.
While planning is still in the very early stages, Mr Albanese was comfortable in ruling out at least one guest, former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.
‘Barnaby is not invited… that’s very clear,’ he said.
But the PM couldn’t give any further detail about who could be on the guest list, adding ‘everyone at this point is on the maybe list, except for Mr and Mrs Haydon (Jodie’s parents)’.
Anthony Albanese with his son Nathan (left) and new fiancée Jodie Haydon
Speaking to Nova radio on Wednesday morning, the PM – a 60-year-old father-of-one – shut down any questions about whether he and his new fiancée are considering having a child
Mr Albanese famously attended Kyle Sandilands’ wedding back in April 2023, prompting mixed reactions from voters.
The Prime Minister spent seven hours at the shindig, arriving with Ms Haydon 30 minutes before the ceremony began, and not leaving until about 9.30pm, when the reception drew to a close and the afterparty began.
Speaking to the top-rating duo, the PM shared more details about his romantic Valentine’s engagement.
He recounted how he presented Jodie with a diamond ring after they enjoyed dinner at a local Italian restaurant.
‘In the morning she got roses from the rose garden. Later we went out to dinner to a restaurant in Canberra and had a two course meal,’ he explained.
‘We went back to the Lodge and I got out a bottle of champagne and glasses on one of the balconies overlooking the garden.’
Mr Albanese said he then pulled the ring box out from below his seat and proposed to Jodie.
‘We sat down and I told her I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and asked her to marry me and she said yes pretty quickly.’
The PM was doing the radio rounds on Wednesday, also speaking to Kyle and Jackie O about their recent engagement and upcoming wedding
During his KIIS appearance, Kyle and Jackie O asked him how he was able to get the ring in secret.
‘My security team are really discreet and they didn’t write it in my diary,’ Mr Albanese said before revealing he purchased the ring from Cerrone in Leichhardt.
He didn’t ask Ms Haydon’s father for his blessing, because ‘Jodie is a very strong feminist who would have objected’ to that.
‘But I think that was a sure thing, anyway, given when Jodie told her dad that we were going out… his first response was ‘I’ve loved him longer than you,’ Mr Albanese said.