Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirms she is in a relationship with Brisbane surgeon Dr Reza Adib

Six months after revealing she would like to share her busy life with someone, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she has found happiness with “a very warm and caring, intelligent man with a great sense of humour”.

Six months after revealing she would like to share her busy life with someone, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has found happiness with Brisbane surgeon Dr Reza Adib.

Speaking exclusively to The Courier-Mail, the Premier said that Adib, a laparoscopic, gastrointestinal and obesity surgeon at Brisbane’s The Wesley Hospital, simply “makes me happy”.

“He is a gorgeous man,” Palaszczuk said, revealing that she met the highly respected specialist through a mutual friend at the Eagle Farm races in June this year.

“He is a very warm and caring, intelligent man with a great sense of humour, and we are just enjoying getting to know each other.”

Adib, a father of two children who the Premier says he is “deeply committed to”, fits the bill of the sort of partner the Premier told QWeekend earlier this year she hoped to one day share her life with.

Dr Reza Adib and Annastacia Palaszczuk met through a mutual friend at the Eagle Farm races in June this year.

“They would have to be someone who is very much their own person, someone who is very comfortable in themselves and in their own career,” the Premier said in March this year.

Speaking about her new partner, Palaszczuk said that Adib is very busy with his own career so he “completely understands how busy I am as well, and is very supportive of my role”.

“We make time when we can to see each other, it’s not easy, but when we do see each other we like to go out to dinner and go on long walks, and what has been nice for me is that he also makes me take a break from work every now and again,” she said.

When Palasczuk spoke to QWeekend in March this year it was just after New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s romance with Daryl Maguire was exposed through an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry, with the Premier at that time expressing sympathy for her counterpart.

Dr Adib is a laparoscopic, gastrointestinal and obesity surgeon at the Wesley hospital.

“What happened to Gladys is for me, a reminder that if you do meet someone, you’ve got to be prepared for it to go public,” the Premier said at the time.

In her case, Palaszczuk says she is speaking about her new partnership in the hope that “people will understand that we are two serious people with serious professions, but while my work is very high profile, we are also just two normal people, like any other couple enjoying time together”.

“We hope that people can respect that, and respect our private life during this time,” she said.

Politics aside, there will be many who will be happy for the Premier who has been married twice - first to journalist George Magalogenis, then to Simon Every, once chief of staff to Senator Joe Ludwig - and who has spoken candidly in the past about her desire and inability to have children due to endometriosis.

Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic and criticism from the federal government for her strong border stance, Palaszczuk has had - like all Queenslanders - a particularly stressful 18 months.

“It has been nice to have someone to talk to about all sorts of things apart from politics” the Premier said.