Plans in place but no date for Jacinda Ardern’s wedding

Following her re-election, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced she’s now planning her wedding.

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks during a press conference at the Parliament House in Wellington on November 6, 2020. (Photo by Dave Lintott / AFP)

New Zealand’s prime minister, who won a landslide victory in last month’s general election, has further reason to celebrate after announcing that she is planning her wedding.

Jacinda Ardern, 40, said Wednesday that there were “some plans” in place but did not disclose a date.

Ms Ardern, who was re-elected on October 17, laughed after she was asked when she would marry Clarke Gayford, with whom she has a two-year-old daughter, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford. In January she had said that the wedding would not be before the general election. “You can’t plan an election and a wedding. It’s too hard,” she explained.

So, she was asked yesterday (Wednesday), had a date been set now that the election was behind her?

“We have some plans - they are some way off,” Ms Ardern replied. “We might need to share some of our plans with our family and friends before we do that more widely.”

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and fiance Clarke Gayford at the Labor Party Election Night Function at Auckland Town Hall on October 17. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Gayford, 44, a broadcaster and the host of a popular television fishing show, proposed to Ms Ardern during a trip to visit his family on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island at Easter last year. He asked her to marry him when they were at the top of a hill, with the prime minister’s protection squad officers near by.

News of their engagement emerged only because a reporter attending a ceremony with Ms Ardern saw the new Art Deco-style ring on her left hand.

After the general election last month Mr Gayford posted on social media: “While the last three years have been a bit of a blur there are still moments like this where I wonder how on earth I ended up here hitched to the @jacindaardern express.”

The Times