Anthony Albanese has been put on the spot over whether marriage is in his future revealing he regards himself as “lucky” to have met his partner Jodie Haydon.
In an excruciating segment on Sydney’s 2DayFM this morning, the Prime Minister was grilled by hosts Dave Hughes and Erin Molan about blind dates, being single in his 50s and finding love.
Radio host Erin Molan then broached the “awkward” conversation of whether Mr Albanese, 60, would ever remarry citing the happy news that former Getaway host Sophie Falkiner was getting engaged again at the age of 50.
“Last thing on this awkward topic for you, which (it) very clearly is Prime Minister, for obvious reasons,’’ Molan said.
“We had Sophie Faulkiner. Do you remember her from like Wheel of Fortune and Getaway? She’s an amazing woman. She got engaged yesterday and she’s 50.
“Prime Minister, is it something on your date card for down the track potentially proposing getting married again? Would you look at that?
“What I wouldn’t do is talk about it on national radio,’’ he laughed.
“That is something between myself and my partner Jodie.”
“I’ve got to say this. I feel incredibly lucky to have met someone and have such a wonderful relationship and Jodie does an amazing job as well at some of the ‘spouse jobs’ that you have to do as the partner of the PM. You know, meeting people and doing all of that.”
Mr Albanese has previously claimed he was blindsided when his wife Carmel Tebutt, a former NSW deputy premier, asked for a divorce on News Year’s Day, 2019.
The couple were married for 19 years and have an adult son, Nathan.
The Prime Minister met his new partner a year later, after the met at an event in Melbourne in early 2020 where they discussed their love for the South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL team, before finding they “got on pretty well” after catching up for a beer.
“I didn’t go on any random blind dates set up by Hughsie,’’ Mr Albanese told 2DayFM.
“You know what’s that called? Judgement.”
The Prime Minister has also confirmed that – despite reports to the contrary – that he never turned to dating apps to find love before meeting his current partner Jodie Haydon.
“It was (challenging), but you live in the public eye,” he said.
“So it was very difficult for me personally. My wife Carmel made a decision that she wanted to move on with her life, it came as a surprise to me, I’ve spoken about that before.
“It was New Year’s Day. So clearly, it was a decision that had been made,” he said.
“Our son had reached 18, had graduated from school, and so she made that decision which I found difficult, but just had to accept that she, of course, had a right to do that. So I didn‘t quite understand it, so I had to accept it rather than understand it.”
Mr Albanese revealed he took some time off a few months later and started to recover.
“I went away in March, so it was January 1, I went away to London to see friends, and to Lisbon, I had two weeks to clear the air, determine what I wanted to do with my life, whether I was going to run again in the election in May,” he said.
Around a year later, he met his current partner Jodie in Melbourne. He admitted he couldn‘t believe his luck.
“I’ve been very lucky to find someone to spend time with and to have a terrific relationship with,’’ he said.