A love story that started with “Up the Rabbitohs!” reached its happily-ever-after on Saturday as Anthony Albanese became the first sitting PM to tie the knot – helped along by Toto the pint-sized ring bearer. See the photos.
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon getting married today in Canberra. Picture: Mike Bowers
Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon exchanged vows they had written themselves in a private wedding ceremony in Canberra on Saturday.
Just 80 guests, including family, friends and Mr Albanese’s closest political allies, were among those invited to the grounds of The Lodge, the Prime Minister’s official residence in Canberra, to see the couple wed.
The newlyweds issued a statement sharing their joy.
“We are absolutely delighted to share our love and commitment to spending our future lives together, in front of our family and closest friends,” they said.
Mr Albanese, 62, and Ms Haydon, 47, who began dating in 2019 and became engaged on Valentine’s Day last year, were married by a celebrant from the Central Coast.
Mr Albanese is the first Australian prime minister to marry while in office.
Details of the nuptials were a closely-guarded secret for privacy and security reasons, however suspicions were aroused after politicians started slipping into Canberra for the weekend.
They had been quietly sitting on an invite for six weeks, one told The Sunday Telegraph.
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon walk down the aisle after getting married today in Canberra. Picture: Mike Bowers
The couple chose not to have a bridal party, with the only two attendants Ms Haydon’s five-year-old niece, Ella, and the Prime Ministerial dog Toto, with the pair wearing matching white dresses. As promised by the PM, Toto was the ring bearer.
Ms Haydon wore a white high-neck dress detailed with fabric-covered buttons on the long sleeve and beaded detail across the gown.
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with his son Nathan and ringbearer Toto before the ceremony today in Canberra. Picture: Mike Bowers
Flower girl Ella at the wedding of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon in Canberra. Picture: Mike Bowers
It was designed by contemporary Sydney fashion house Romance Was Born. She paired it with a drop veil and carried a bouquet of yellow roses, white orchids and eucalyptus leaves.
Mr Albanese wore a deep navy blue jacket with black satin collar, black bowtie and black pants from menswear designer MJ Bale, and a white rose buttonhole.
Ms Haydon was walked down the aisle by her parents Bill and Pauline to Ben Folds’ song The Luckiest.
After the ceremony the couple walked back down the aisle to Stevie Wonder’s hit Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours).
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon after getting married today in Canberra. Picture: Mike Bowers
Among the 80 guests to attend the wedding were Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, ALP national secretary Paul Erickson, Health Minister Mark Butler, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, Industry Minister Tim Ayres and Trade Minister Don Farrell.
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon sign the marriage certificate with celebrant Bree after getting married today in Canberra. Picture: Mike Bowers
While the couple chose not to invite state and territory leaders, there were a few politicians not on the frontbench that scored an invite, such as his former staffer turned NSW MP Jo Haylen, NSW Transport Minister John Graham and Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne.
The Prime Minister also invited people from his inner circle including strategist Mal Larsen, his head of communications Fiona Sugden and adviser Dimity Paul.
Friends from both their childhoods, including Mr Albanese’s friends from Camperdown and Ms Haydon’s friends from high school, were among the guests.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong arriving at The Lodge in Canberra for the wedding of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon. Picture: Richard Dobson
MP Jo Haylen arriving at The Lodge in Canberra for the wedding of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon. Picture: Richard Dobson
In a nod to Mr Albanese’s inner-city roots, local brewery Willie The Boatman designed special beer cans for the occasion. The couple exchanged gold bands designed by Leichhardt’s Cerrone Jewellers.
With the formalities over, guests let down their hair as Mr Albanese and Ms Haydon shared their first dance to Frank Sinatra’s The Way You Look Tonight. Mr Albanese’s son Nathan was due to give a speech later in the evening.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his partner Laura arriving at The Lodge in Canberra for the wedding of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon. Picture: Richard Dobson
Inner West Council Mayor Darcy Byrne and his partner arriving at The Lodge in Canberra for the wedding of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon. Picture: Richard Dobson
Despite using the PM’s official residence, The Lodge, as the venue, the wedding was paid for privately by the couple. They will honeymoon in Australia next week.
They met in 2019 at a function, when Ms Haydon caught his attention after yelling out from a crowd her support for Souths. Albo later admitted she “had him at ‘Up the Rabbitohs!”.
The pair initially kept a low profile before Ms Haydon joined Mr Albanese on the campaign trail in 2022.
It is Ms Haydon’s first marriage and Mr Albanese’s second. He was previously married to former NSW Labor minister Carmel Tebbutt with whom he has a son Nathan. The couple separated after 19 years of marriage.
Ms Haydon once revealed that she had been single for a long time before meeting the PM, and agreed her path from the NSW Central Coast where she grew up to meeting world leaders had been a fairytale story.
“Did I see my life panning out this way?” she once said.
“Absolutely not.”
Dave Skinner and partner Minister for Finance Katy Gallagher arriving at The Lodge in Canberra for the wedding of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon. Picture: Richard Dobson
Minister for Trade Don Farrell arriving at The Lodge in Canberra for the wedding of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner Jodie Haydon. Picture: Richard Dobson
The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon getting married today in Canberra. Picture: Mike Bowers
How Albo and Jodie met
Theirs is the most modern of a love story, even if it isn’t especially prime ministerial.
Eighteen months after the break-up of his first marriage, then opposition leader Anthony Albanese was the keynote speaker at an event where an attractive woman boldly shouted her support for his favourite team.
A short while later that attractive woman, Jodie Haydon, would make the first move and slide into his DM’s with a “hey, we’re both single”.
It’s the 40+ version of “u up?” and it began a romance that, today, culminated in a wedding.
Haydon and Albanese have never revealed publicly what he replied, but we do know they next met by coincidence at a function, where he invited her for a drink at hipster Newton brewery Young Henrys.
When it closed they made the three-minute stroll around the corner to since-closed Turkish joint Stanbuli, the one with the famous pink pastel door.
The whole story is so “everyman” that one could be forgiven for thinking it was manufactured by Albo’s spin doctors to lean into the working class bloke, just like you image he was trying to curate as he made his play to lead the country.
Anthony Albanese, Jodie Haydon and dog Toto enjoy the sunshine in Canberra. Picture: Instagram
But it is their love story and they are sticking to it.
After that very-inner-west first date, their courtship continued clandestinely at various Marrickville establishments as their connection grew before Albanese upped the ante and invited Haydon to the Woodford Folk Festival, where they would spend several nights sharing shipping container sleeping quarters.
“It was really early on to sort of dive in like that. We barely knew each other. It was the first time we had been away together and, romantically, we stayed in a shipping container, which is what you do at Woodford,’’ told the Sunday Telegraph in an interview in 2022.
The pair’s shared love of music and the opportunity for Haydon to see a more relaxed, even playful side, of Albanese bonded them further.
But it was the pandemic-induced lockdowns that really helped the couple’s love grow, particularly without the glare of the public gaze.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon at the Lodge in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Their blossoming love in lockdown echoed the everyman narrative of their early meeting. They spent time cooking together, binge watching shows and listening to music – just like the rest of us.
They haven’t mentioned it but there’s no doubt they also stressed about the nationwide shortage of toilet paper – just like the rest of us.
But in June 2020 the couple’s relationship was no longer a secret, with the pair photographed dining at China Doll.
A besotted Albanese was pictured laughing and looking relaxed, serving rice for himself and his new love, before they leant in for a tender kiss.
Albo’s bachelor days were over and Haydon’s previously quiet life was splashed in the headlines.
Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon announce their engagement. Picture: AFP
Until that day, she said, she had never been in the paper.
That would all change as the couple took their love public, as Albanese took his campaign to be prime minister on the road.
When he won the 2022 election, returning Labor to government after a lengthy stint in opposition, Haydon was by his side as he claimed victory.
Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon on election day in 2022. Picture: Sam Ruttyn
Dressed, appropriately, in Labor red she would be by his side through his first term as the nation’s leader – a glamorous addition to what could been the Lodge as a bachelor pad if she hadn’t shouted “up the Rabbitohs” and slid into his DM’s.
She has been there as he has met world leaders, she was with him at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, and she was again with him when he claimed victory, and a second term as Prime Minister this year.
Throughout, she has kept her career – saying when their relationship became public knowledge that “my job will be to focus on my day job and allow Anthony to focus on his”
And she has done that, maintaining her career in financial services, while adding some “first girlfriend” — or “first fiancee” more lately — duties to her load, including patron of the National Portrait Gallery and Ambassador for childhood cancer charity Redkite.
The Copacabana beach house the couple bought for $4.3 million.
When the Prime Minister proposed on Valentine’s Day last year, the announcement was made, appropriately and somewhat sentimentally, on the platform formerly known as Twitter – the same place she slid into his DMs all those years ago.
She has effortlessly, and elegantly, navigated the choppy waters of being a political spouse — rarely dancing with controversy, never standing in the shadows but also never stealing the spotlight, and always armed with a dazzling smile that does truly seem to take the Prime Minister’s breath away.
In fact, the closest Haydon has come to controversy in their two-election, six-year relationship is last year when the couple purchased a $4.3 million home in Copacabana on the NSW Central Coast, where she grew up, with some criticising them for the lavish purchase during a cost of living crisis.
Instead, Haydon has been largely praised for challenging the norms for political spouses, who are often expected to give up their careers.
And now their very modern relationship has reached its zenith as the couple wed.