The affair made official: How Barnaby Joyce proposed to Vikki Campion

Vikki Campion has revealed how Barnaby Joyce proposed to her this week, finally making their four-year union official.

Four years after Barnaby Joyce’s affair was made public via The Daily Telegraph he has proposed to his then-staffer, now the mother of his two sons.

The Deputy Prime Minister’s proposal was detailed in the same publication that pictured a heavily pregnant Campion scurrying across a street in early 2018.

The photo confirmed what many in Canberra circles already knew, that Mr Joyce had an affair with his media adviser while still married to his former wife of 24 years.

A pregnant Vikki Campion pictured in Canberra. Picture John Grainger

His affair prompted then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to introduce the infamous ‘bonk ban’ stopping ministers from forming relationships with staff.

“I think we know that the real issue is the terrible hurt and humiliation that Barnaby by his conduct, has visited on his wife, Natalie and their daughters and indeed, his new partner,” Mr Turnbull said at the time.

“Barnaby made a shocking error of judgment in having an affair with a young woman working in his office. In doing so, he has set off a world of woe for those women and appalled all of us.”

Ms Campion detailed the proposal in a first-person piece in The Sunday Telegraph.

Vikki Campion and Barnaby Joyce in Canberra this week. Picture: Supplied.

She explained her former boss proposed at Coffs Harbour restaurant Latitude 30 on the NSW mid-north coast on Sunday night.

“He pretended to drop his phone on the floor, jumped down on both knees as if he was praying, not proposing, and said: ‘Vikki, will you marry me?’ and I melted. Amid rising happy tears, the answer caught in my throat. I threw my arms around him and kissed him. Always, yes,” she wrote.

Later in the piece, she explained how she did not expect the pair, who have two sons together, to get married but said “Great love doesn’t need a ring but I like how it feels.”

When the affair was made public the couple complained about the intrusion into their privacy but later did a tell-all interview with Channel 7, which was reportedly worth $150,000.

Mr Joyce took particular aim at the media for its treatment of Campion and the paparazzi-style photograph taken of her.