PM’s wife Jenny Morrison shares the struggle to have her daughters

Infertility and baby joy were the subjects of Jenny Morrison’s searingly honest first public speech, writes Sharri Markson

For a prime minister and former treasurer who knows his way around complex budget papers, Scott Morrison could not work out how to read a pregnancy test.

It was the summer of 2006, about a year before he would enter federal parliament at the November 2007 election.

He and Jenny had retreated to a cottage they used to own in the Blue Mountains to relax for a few days.

Jenny and Scott Morrison and wife Jenny at Canberra’s annual Midwinter Ball in Parliament House. Picture: Gary Ramage

Scott was reading the papers on the deck, and Jenny made an excuse saying she was nipping off to the Blackheath shops.

She felt a bit agitated and thought, just maybe, could she be pregnant? She was trying to work out when Scott had gone away for that camping trip. She bought a test, just in case, to check. Like she had done on numerous other occasions, all with the same heart-wrenching result.

But this time it was different. The test was positive. She was pregnant.

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“I could NOT believe it. I saw these double lines and I was in absolute shock because so many times I had done one of those things and it just never happened,” she said.

She went out on to the balcony, still stunned, holding the stick. She gave it to Scott.

“I was in shock, I walked up to Scott and he was sitting on the deck and I said, ‘I don’t think we’re going to Rwanda in January.’

“He just looked at me, he looked at it and said ‘What does that mean?’

“I said, ‘I think I’m pregnant’, and he said ‘What?’”

The Morrisons with their adored daughters Abbey (right) and Lily after winning this year’s election. Picture: Dean Lewins

Jenny had been told to give up on her dream of having children. That it wouldn’t happen for her and Scott.

But 16 years after they got married, and 14 years since they started trying for a baby, finally their dreams were coming true.

That positive test resulted in their eldest daughter Abigail, now 12, who was followed by Lily, two years later.

This joyous memory of telling her husband the news she was pregnant, and naturally at that, was one that Jenny spoke to me about this week in her first public speaking engagement.

We know Jenny from being a sunny fixture by her husband’s side on the campaign trail and accompanying him to meetings with world leaders.

But the public has rarely heard from her.

She is now trying to navigate her way in her new high-profile role, and work out what sort of unofficial first-lady she should be.

She isn’t jumping to do a lot publicly, but is taking it slow and growing into the role.

Jenny Morrison talking about her personal infertility journey. Picture: John Feder

Away from politics, Jenny will become more involved in charities and is deciding which areas she wants to invest her time in.

She is likely to do more speaking engagements and stake out a position for herself in the public domain, championing causes that she cares about.

Helping other women deal with infertility, by sharing her own long journey, was a wonderful starting point.

I interviewed Jenny on a panel with Peter Overton and Mary Coustas for a charity, the Australian Jewish Infertility Network, a few days ago.

Alongside Overton and Coustas, both seasoned, professional public speakers, Jenny may have felt out of her comfort zone. It was her first public speaking gig. But you wouldn’t have known. She held her own.

The extent to which Jenny opened up about her battle to conceive, sharing inner vulnerabilities, is unprecedented for a prime minister’s wife.

Her husband isn’t overly keen on sharing his emotions publicly.

I’m reminded of the day after he won the May election when, at the end of my interview with him, I asked whether he had shed a tear when he realised that, against the odds, he’d pulled off a victory.

He kind of scoffed and matter-of-factly rebuffed the question.

“Sharri, I’m not going to … the cameras were on. People could see what I was doing.”

The Morrisons on their wedding day.

Jenny, warm and comfortable in her own skin, shared generously from her own life experience in order to help others going through a similar struggle.

She also revealed her despair as she watched others around her fall pregnant, along with the isolation she suffered, and even, at times, depression.

Searingly honest, she opened up about how the long, long battle with infertility, and the difficult IVF treatments, impacted on their marriage, speaking about how Scott threw himself into work and referring to the “mechanics” of trying for a baby.

“Scott and I are a very close couple,” she said.

“We grew up together. We rely on each other. I did feel at some points it was way more important to me than it was to him.

“He was so gorgeous, he said to me at some points, ‘You are plenty enough. I don’t need children.’

The Morrisons enjoy some family time together.

“But of course he wanted children. So there were times that were really hard for us, yes. And you just get angry when things don’t go the way you want them to, you either lash out or withdraw. It’s all the mechanics of it as well at other times. We got by. We’re here. We made it to the other side.”

Unlike other political wives such as Therese Rein, Lucy Turnbull and Chloe Shorten, Jenny isn’t used to the public eye or personal or media attention.

While not high-profile, she has had her own career.

She studied nursing and worked in childcare and then retail until Morrison became the PM.

She is seen as “normal” by the public, and is warmly embraced on social media.

As our first lady, she will balance her growing involvement in charities with her strong desire to try give the two daughters she so desperately dreamt of over so many years a normal childhood and upbringing.

Or as normal as possible when you live in Kirribilli House and your dad is the prime minister.

They are her focus.

Originally published as PM’s wife Jenny Morrison shares the struggle to have her daughters