WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — After nearly five years of engagement and a postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic, former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern married her longtime partner Clarke Gayford in a private ceremony Saturday.
The pair remained tight-lipped about the details of the event, but the ceremony was said to have taken place at a luxury wine estate in the picturesque Hawke's Bay region, 325 kilometers (200 miles) from New Zealand's capital, Wellington.
It is believed only family, close friends and some of Ardern's former colleagues in the legislature were invited, including Ardern's successor and former prime minister Chris Hipkins.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, front right, mingles with guests at her wedding to Clarke Gayford at a winery in Havelock North, New Zealand, Saturday, January 13, 2024. (George Heard/New Zealand Herald via AP)
Earlier, police met with a small group of protesters who had covered a wall outside the venue with dozens of anti-vaccination posters. A protester was also seen holding a sign at the edge of the property that read, “Less we forget to get vaccinated.”
Ardern and Gayford, 47, reportedly started dating in 2014 and got engaged five years later. But due to the Ardern government's COVID-19 restrictions, which reduced gatherings to 100 people, the wedding planned for the southern hemisphere summer of 2022 has been postponed.
“That’s life,” Ardern said when they decided to call off the wedding. “I’m no different from thousands of other New Zealanders.”
Ardern was just 37 when she became party leader in 2017 and quickly became a global icon of the left. She embodied a new style of leadership and was praised around the world for her handling of the country's worst mass shootings and the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2018, Ardern became only the second elected world leader to give birth while in office. Later that year, she brought her young daughter to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
FILE – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (right) is congratulated by her partner Clarke Gayford after her victory speech to Labor Party members at an event in Auckland, New Zealand, Oct. 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)
New Zealand had some of the strictest coronavirus regulations in the world under Ardern's government, prompting several rallies in her final year as prime minister. It also led to a level of vitriol among some that previous New Zealand leaders had not experienced.
Ardern shocked New Zealanders in January 2023 when she said she would step down after five and a half years as prime minister because she no longer had “enough in the tank” to do the job justice in an election year.
Since then, Ardern announced she would temporarily move to Harvard University after being appointed to a dual scholarship at Harvard Kennedy School. She has also taken on an unpaid role in the fight against online extremism.
In June, Ardern received one of New Zealand's highest honors for her contributions to leading the country through a mass shooting and pandemic. She has been named Dame Grand Companion, meaning people will now call her Dame Jacinda Ardern.