A spokesperson for the Prime Minister on Friday said that she and Clarke Gayford became engaged over Easter. The couple are understood to have spent Easter in Mahia at Gayford’s family bach.
Ardern’s press secretary said she has been wearing a ring since the engagement, but that it has been on her middle finger, not the traditional ring finger.
Ardern, 38, and Gayford, 41, met at an awards event in 2012, and in 2018 she gave birth to their first child together, daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, who turns one next month.
Ardern made history as the second head of government to give birth while in office.
The couple gained global notoriety when baby Neve joined them at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September. An image of the Prime Minister sitting next to her partner while holding their baby went viral.
Who proposed?
It is not yet known whether Ardern or Gayford popped the question.
However, in an interview with the BBC in January, Ardern said she wouldn’t propose to Gayford.
“Absolutely I am a feminist’, Ardern said. “But no, I want to put him through the pain and torture of having to agonise about that question himself. No, that’s letting him off the hook,” she said.
A ring, thought to be diamond, was spotted by reporters on the Prime Minister’s hand at a ceremony at Pike River on the country’s West Coast earlier today, raising speculation of the engagement.
The couple have been widely congratulated on social media including by National leader Simon Bridges who tweeted that he and his wife Natalie extend their congratulations.
