PM Malcolm Turnbull makes shocking marriage admission in radio interview

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull has revealed he threatened to have premarital “fornication” with his now-wife Lucy to convince a priest to marry them.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made a few surprising admissions in a revealing new interview. Picture: AAP/Glenn Hunt.

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull has reluctantly revealed he bought his wife Lucy an expensive Cartier watch for her birthday, but in the same interview volunteered some other, slightly more personal, information.

In a candid interview with Brisbane radio station 97.3 FM today, Mr Turnbull said he’d given his wife “just a new watch — a new Cartier watch actually” for her birthday last month.

But despite appearing hesitant to disclose the brand of the watch, requiring prompting from one of the show’s presenters, Mr Turnbull voluntarily confessed to convincing a vicar to allow him to marry his wife Lucy in an Anglican Church, by threatening premarital “fornication”.

Mr Turnbull said an Anglican vicar initially denied the young couple’s request to marry in his “beautiful old church” in Cumnor, UK because neither of them were of the Anglican faith.

But the then 25-year-old student wasn’t about to be deterred.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with wife Lucy arriving at the Mardi Gras parade.

“(The vicar) said: ‘get out of here, what are you talking about, you’re not part of my flock go to the registry office’,” Mr Turnbull told the radio station.

“We said: ‘we really want to get married here.’

“So I said to him, ‘you’re a Minister in the Church of England right? And he said, ‘yes’.

“I said, ‘And the Church of England is an established Church in the United Kingdom. ‘Yes,’ he said. So I said, ‘you are kind of like a public servant.’

“He said, ‘yes.’

“I said, ‘well one of your jobs is to prevent fornication in this parish’.

Malcolm Turnbull stumbles way through 7.30 interview

“And he said, ‘yeah’.

“I said, ‘well look, Ms Hughes and I are not making any admissions but we are young and in excellent health and sorely tempted. If you marry us you will eliminate the risk of fornication in the cottage where we are living down the road.’

“And he thought that was so funny that he said, ‘done’. And we got married. That’s exactly how the vicar in Cumnor married us.”

But Mr Turnbull said marrying Mrs Turnbull was “the best call I ever made bar none.”

“I’m the luckiest guy,” he said.

Mr Turnbull admits he’s not a great cook but can whip up a mean spag bol. Picture: Tait Schmaal.

In the wide-ranging interview, the Prime Minister also revealed he irons his own shirts whenever he travels, a skill taught to him by his father.

And claims he makes a mean spaghetti bolognaise, despite being “not a great cook”.

“Oh, Spaghetti Bolognese; that’s a pretty good regular,” Mr Turnbull said when asked about his best dish.

“I can, you know I can do, obviously steak and fish — all of those basic things.

“But I am pretty good, I make, I love making passata.

“Dad taught me how to roast tomatoes.”

Asked whether he was doing a good job as PM, Mr Turnbull said: “I think I am doing a good job but every day I try to do a better one.”