Anthony Albanese is set to marry his partner Jodie Haydon earlier than planned so that his fiancée’s grandmother doesn’t miss the ceremony.
Albanese, 61, is due to marry Haydon, 45, sometime next year, although the couple have remained tight-lipped about a specific date.
It has since emerged that the couple have been facing pressure from Haydon’s 94-year-old grandmother to bring forward the wedding.
She has expressed concern that she might not live to see the ceremony if it is held too late. The Telegraph newspaper reported.
While Albanese won’t say whether she’ll reschedule the ceremony, she admitted she doesn’t know what she’ll wear and considers getting along with her in-laws more important than a wedding.
Ms Haydon’s family lives on the Central Coast of New South Wales and the nuptials could end up being private, as well as taking place after the election.
The date of the elections has not yet been announced, although it is understood that they will take place in May.
The couple announced their engagement with a loving selfie on social media on February 15, a day after Albanese proposed on Valentine’s Day.
Anthony Albanese could marry his partner Jodie Haydon earlier than planned so that his fiancée’s grandmother doesn’t miss the ceremony
“She said yes,” he wrote.
It is the first time an Australian Prime Minister has made a commitment while in office.
In a joint statement, the couple said: “We are delighted and excited to share this news and look forward to spending the rest of our lives together.”
“We are very lucky to have found each other.”
The pair met in 2020 at a business dinner in Melbourne, when Albanese asked the crowd if there were any other South Sydney fans present and finance worker Ms Haydon, who lives in his electorate of Grayndler, shouted: “Up the Rabbitohs.”
He later introduced himself and they decided to go for a drink when they got back to Sydney.
He wooed his new bride with a night at Young Henrys brewery in Newtown.
“I thought we stayed at Young Henrys in Newtown and we got on really well. That’s how it all started,” she told Women’s Weekly.
Meeting Ms Haydon and finding love again is a far cry from New Year’s Day 2019, when Mr Albanese’s wife of 30 years and married to him for 19, Carmel Tebbutt, told him she was leaving him.
“It was a shock to me. We had spent a wonderful night together the night before, New Year’s Eve, so there was no warning,” Albanese said.
No date has yet been announced for the elections, although they are understood to be due to take place in May.
Anthony Albanese with his ex-wife Carmel Tubbutt (pictured), seen less than three months before their marriage broke up
After traveling alone to Europe to meet friends, do some sightseeing and think about the breakup of his marriage, he decided to accept his ex-wife’s decision.
“I was trying to understand what had happened to my relationship and that made me realize that what I needed to do was not try to understand it but to accept it,” she said.
“It happened, it was his decision, there was nothing I could do about it.”
Mr Albanese returned to Australia feeling refreshed and worked hard in the 2019 election, which Labor’s Bill Shorten lost.
The Prime Minister decided “immediately” that he would run for the highest office in the country.
Mr Albanese said he also knew he was certain of one other thing: that he would not find another woman because at that point Carmel was still “the love of my life”.