Jacinda Ardern’s partner Clarke Gayford offers wisdom on world leaders

Jacinda Ardern’s partner Clarke Gayford has gone public with his views on world leaders, including Malcolm Turnbull.

Jacinda Ardern and partner Clarke Gayford with their new baby girl Neve. Picture; Getty Images.

Less than a year after she was elected New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern’s partner has gone public with his views on world leaders, including Malcolm Turnbull.

Ms Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford, are this week leaving for New York where Ms Ardern is scheduled to speak at the United Nations General Assembly.

The trip will also be the first overseas outing for daughter Neve, who was born in June.

Speaking at an event on Thursday night, Mr Gayford, a television and radio presenter who has taken on a full-time fathering role for Neve, reportedly told an Auckland audience he had received an invitation to a reception for leaders’ partners from Donald Trump’s wife.

Joking about the event as “tea and scones with Melania, ” the 40-year-old said, pulling out his mobile to read the message: “It’s pretty funny. I sent it to a few friends and said, ‘You will not believe this invite I just got’.”

He added: “I’ll see if we have time,” according to website Stuff.co.nz.

Melania Trump has invited Clarke Gayford to a spouses’ event. Picture; AFP.

At the event, for which he claims he was paid only a jar of chutney, Mr Gayford suggested he didn’t expect to like Mr Turnbull when they met earlier this year, telling the audience: “He was actually really quite personable in a one-on-one setting, and Lucy was great as well. We got on really well with them […] It was interesting the way he talked, versus how some of the policy and politics line up.”

His meeting with the former Prime Minister came when the Federal Government and Wellington were at odds over NZ’s offer to take 150 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru, amid claims the offer encouraged people smuggling.

Showing off a slideshow of snaps of the famous people he has met since Ms Ardern became PM - including the Queen and singer Ed Sheeran - Ms Gayford recalled a “very lovely” Barack Obama.

“He was really lovely … an inquisitive, curious human being,” he said.

He said the two men shared a hongi - the traditional Maori greeting involving the touching of noses.

“I was one of the first ones up and I was pretty nervous - and he’d only done one before either. Lovely, soft nose,” Mr Gayford said.

Ms Ardern’s partner also told his audience New Zealanders didn’t realise just how big was her international appeal. In the UK for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting, he said Ms Ardern received 70 media requests for interviews. For the New York trip, her staff handled hundreds of requests, and have scheduled 40 over seven days, including high-profile appearances on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the Today Show and a lengthy interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

While Ms Ardern is expected to receive an enthusiastic welcome in the US, her trip ends a rough month in domestic politics for her Labour Party, following the firing of one government minister this week and the resignation of another just weeks ago, both amid scandals.

AAP