Julia Gillard confirms quiet end to relationship with ‘First Bloke’ Tim Mathieson

Australia’s first female PM has confirmed where she and Tim Mathieson stand after repeated questions about a notable absence at her public appearances.

She was Australia’s first female Prime Minister and he was dubbed the First Bloke, with a mould-breaking relationship that sparked intense media scrutiny and even a TV comedy.

But now notoriously private Julia Gillard has confirmed exclusively to the Sunday Mail that she and former hairdresser Tim Mathieson have quietly gone their separate ways.

Ms Gillard decided to end speculation after media commentators noted Mr Mathieson’s absence from her side at public events. The former First Couple have not been in the same city for over 12 months and Ms Gillard has confirmed they split up more than a year ago after a decade and a half together.

Ms Gillard is currently in isolation in London after contracting Covid-19, describing the experience as “debilitating”, but saying she is “on the road to recovery”.

She has been splitting her time across the two hemispheres, living between Adelaide and the UK, where she is chairing the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at prestigious King’s College.

This tyranny of distance was a factor in straining the more than 10-year partnership, with Mr Mathieson’s feet planted firmly in country Victoria.

Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and former partner Tim Mathieson.

The couple was first introduced in 2004 at the Melbourne-based hair salon where Mr Mathieson was working at the time, with Ms Gillard writing about their meeting in her 2014 autobiography My Story.

“Every four or five weeks on a Sunday morning, I used to go in and work my way through the newspapers as my hair was done. Tim and I got talking about politics: initially he thought I was a state member of parliament. We had later run into each other on a tram and had a chat,” Ms Gillard wrote.

But the couple didn’t strike up an official relationship until they arranged to catch up for lunch in 2006 during the “politically quiet time of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games”.

Mr Mathieson was by Ms Gillard’s side in her more than three years as Australia’s first female Prime Minister. The pair moved into The Lodge together in 2010 where Mr Mathieson was dubbed Australia’s First Bloke.

A first for Australia, the unmarried couple challenged the nation’s view of traditional relationship roles at the time with Mr Mathieson taking on responsibilities traditionally the domain of political wives, such as Patron of the National Portrait Gallery. Previous patrons before him were Thérèse Rein, wife of Kevin Rudd, and Janette Howard wife of John Howard.

Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her then-partner Tim Mathieson at Symonds Stadium in Geelong in 2013 Picture: David Crosling

During Ms Gillard’s prime ministership, the couple’s relationship was the subject of intense and constant media scrutiny. They were even the subject of an ABC comedy series that parodied their fictional home life together – something that would be highly unlikely happen if the gender roles were reversed.

Ms Gillard last visited her home in Adelaide over Christmas where she celebrated the holiday season with friends and family, as well as enjoying belated celebrations for her 60th birthday. She is expected back in Australia in May.

While she might currently be on the other side of the globe, and focusing on her Covid recovery, Ms Gillard still has her eye across the domestic political landscape tweeting her congratulations to new Premier Peter Malinauskas and the ALP on their historic victory at

last weekend’s state election.

“Pleased South Australians have endorsed the progressive policies needed to create a stronger and fairer future for our great state,” Ms Gillard said.