Australian Prime Minister Albanese marries girlfriend in private ceremony

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese married his girlfriend Jodie Haydon on Saturday, becoming the country’s first leader to tie the knot while in office.

A beaming Albanese, 62, wed the financial services worker at a private ceremony in the garden of his official residence in Canberra, The Lodge.

Married”, the prime minister said in a one-word post on social media with video of him in a bow-tie holding the hand of his smiling bride, who wore a long, white dress, as confetti showered down.

In a separate joint statement, the couple said: “We are absolutely delighted to share our love and commitment to spending our future lives together, in front of our family and closest friends.”

The ceremony took place more than a year after Albanese proposed on Valentine’s Day 2024, saying at the time he had found a partner “who I want to spend the rest of my life with”.

They wrote their own vows and were married by a celebrant.

Albanese’s dog, a shaggy cavoodle named Toto, was the ring bearer.

After the ceremony, where guests drank beer from a Sydney brewery, the couple walked down the aisle to Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours).”

The newlyweds are to go on a five-day honeymoon in Australia from Monday.

The prime minister — who divorced his previous wife in 2019 and has an adult son, Nathan — met Haydon more than five years ago at a Melbourne business dinner.

The centre-left Labor Party leader secured a second three-year term in office in a landslide election victory in May this year.

He joined Labor while in high school and later became deeply involved in the bruising world of student politics at the University of Sydney.

AFP