Prime Minister Anthony Albanese considered eloping with Jodie Haydon

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he considered eloping with his fiancee Jodie Haydon when parliament rose last month.

The revelation was made just hours before Treasurer Jim Chalmers is due to hand down the budget. Albanese told morning radio he and Haydon seriously considered a secret marriage on Valentine’s Day this year – the anniversary of their engagement – to end wedding speculation.

Anthony Albanese and Jodie Hayden.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Speaking about his wedding plans on budget day continued the prime minister’s practice of discussing his personal life as he prepares for an upcoming election campaign, and said he and Haydon still planned to marry in the second half of the year.

“We did think about, I’ve got to say, on the anniversary, really quietly, just doing it to stop speculation,” Albanese told Brisbane radio B105 on Tuesday morning.

“But we decided that might get some speculation back as well, so we didn’t. I did think about doing it really quietly.”

The prime minister unequivocally confirmed the wedding would be in the latter half of this year, and said it would be a small wedding.

“The wedding will be in the second half of the year, it won’t be elaborate,” he said. “The only thing that’s finalised is our ring bearer. And that, of course, is Toto the wonder dog.”

Albanese proposed to Haydon on Valentine’s Day last year, sparking questions about when the couple would get married.

The confirmation of Albanese and Haydon marrying later this year means that if he wins the upcoming election, he will be the first Australian prime minister to get married while in office.

Haydon told the Australian Women’s Weekly last month the wedding would be “possibly outdoors, in the second half of this year, with our family and loved ones”.

While she said the wedding would be intimate, Haydon also noted that having a large family would make it difficult to keep the event small.

Recent revelations about Albanese’s private life have clashed with the government’s messaging as Labor prepares its budget before an election due by May 17. Albanese is expected to call the election in the coming days.

The Women’s Weekly article was published just as the prime minister and treasurer were promoting the government’s economic record after the Reserve Bank’s interest rate cut.

And the prime minister’s purchase of a $4.3 million home on the NSW Central Coast was questioned by some Labor colleagues when it was revealed in October, as it caused backlash during a cost-of-living crisis.

“Of course, I am much better off as prime minister, I earn a good income, I understand that,” he told a press conference at the time.

“I also know what it is like to struggle. My mum lived in the one public housing [home] that she was born in for all of her 65 years.”

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