Like many modern relationships, it started with a slide into DMs on social media.
More than six years after a love of the South Sydney Rabbitohs introduced Anthony Albanese to Jodie Haydon, the pair declared their love for each other in an intimate wedding ceremony at The Lodge in Canberra on Saturday.
Mr Albanese, then opposition leader, was a keynote speaker at a national union conference in Melbourne in 2019 when a quip about the Rabbitohs during his address led him to be introduced to Ms Haydon.
After referencing South Sydney during the speech, Ms Haydon yelled out “up the Rabbitohs”, which would later prompt messages on social media.
“I slid into his DMs,” Ms Haydon told News Corp in 2022.
“He had a public profile and I didn’t, so I knew that we both followed the same footy team, we both had a love for the inner west and I think I said in that direct message ‘hey, we’re both single’.”
Reflecting on the connection in 2024, Mr Albanese told a Brisbane radio station it was “a very strange way” to meet someone.
“Who would’ve thought that romance could begin there?” he said.
Messages on Twitter led to first dates over craft beer at a Newtown brewery and soon a relationship.
When Mr Albanese was involved in a serious car accident in 2021, Ms Haydon said it had crystalised many feelings she had about him.
“It was very scary, and in that moment, you realise just how much you love this person – the fear of losing them. As I jumped in the ambulance and saw Anthony, I knew then the depth of my feelings towards him,” she told the Australian Women’s Weekly.
The couple were regularly seen with each other publicly in the lead up to the 2022 election, with Ms Haydon front and centre with Mr Albanese during his victory speech on election night.
She has been a regular presence on overseas visits with the prime minister, including to the US and world summits.
The pair’s wedding at the Lodge was the same location where Mr Albanese popped the question to Ms Haydon on Valentine’s Day in 2024.
Mr Albanese proposed with a ring he designed, following a dinner at an Italian restaurant in the Canberra suburb of Braddon that night.
“We are thrilled and excited to share this news and look forward to spending the rest of our lives together,” the couple said in a statement.
“We are so lucky to have found each other.”
Mr Albanese was the first prime minister to be engaged while in office, and has become the first to be married while serving in the role.
From the moment the couple were engaged, speculation had swirled about where and when the wedding would take place, as well as what would be involved on the big day.
Mr Albanese said he had been looking to get married in the second half of the year, after the May election, although he said there was consideration of nuptials on the anniversary of their engagement.
“We did think about it, I’ve got to say, on the anniversary, really quietly, just doing it to stop speculation,” Mr Albanese told B105 Brisbane in March.
“But we decided that might get some speculation as well, so we didn’t. (But) I did think about doing it really quietly.”
The couple hadn’t revealed many details about what the wedding would look like, beyond the prime minister’s dog Toto being involved in the ceremony as a possible ring bearer and that it would be on the smaller side.
“It’s going to be a great day in front of family and friends. Pretty small and something that’s about myself and Jodie rather than a big public event,” Mr Albanese told ABC Radio.
After a political honeymoon that has lasted several months following a large election victory in May, Mr Albanese and his wife are about to enjoy a honeymoon of their own.
