NEW ZEALAND EX-PM JACINDA ARDERN MARRIES CLARKE GAYFORD AFTER FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT

Sat 13 January 2024:

Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand, wed Clarke Gayford, her lifelong partner, in a private ceremony on Saturday, January 13, following a delay brought on by her government’s strict COVID-19 regulations in the nation.

After roughly five years of courtship and ten years of dating, the couple got married.According to her spokesman, the wedding ceremony was held on Saturday afternoon in Hawke’s Bay at the Craggy Range Winery on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. In front of perhaps 50 to 75 guests, Ardern (43), and Gayford (47), tied the knot, according to a report by the news website Stuff.

The couple, who also have a five-year-old daughter named Neve, first met about a decade ago, and got engaged in 2019.

It has been reported that only the couple’s family, close friends and a few of the 43-year-old former PM’s colleagues were invited, including her successor and ex-PM Chris Hipkins and his partner Tony Grace.

The wedding, which was reportedly supposed to take place in the summer of 2022, was postponed due to Ardern’s government’s strict COVID-19 policies and her “go hard, go early” approach to the pandemic, which helped keep the spread of the deadly virus in check in New Zealand.

PHOTOS: Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern marries long-time partner Clarke Gayford pic.twitter.com/Q6Eex0EtQu

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) January 13, 2024

In line with this, gatherings were limited to 100 people amid the Omicron variant surge. “My wedding won’t be going ahead but I just join many other New Zealanders who have had an experience like that as a result of the pandemic,” she told reporters while announcing that she had called off the wedding for now, adding “Such is life.”

Around six months ago, the former PM joined Harvard University where she has been undertaking three fellowships.

‘Wedding crashers’

On Saturday morning, the police met with a small group of protesters who opposed the vaccine mandates imposed by Ardern’s government and that ended in 2022.

The protesters had also plastered a wall with dozens of anti-vaccination posters outside the venue, according to the Associated Press.

One protester was also seen holding a sign that read, “Lest we forget jab mandates,” on the outskirts of the property, reported the AP.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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