Anthony Albanese confirms wedding to Jodie Haydon delayed till after election

Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon have pushed back their wedding plans until later next year so that he can focus on the election.

The Prime Minister on Monday confirmed the federal election, due by May next year, was making it hard to set a date any sooner.

“That will … likely be the second half of next year, but it will be after the election because I want to focus on the job at hand,” Mr Albanese told ABC radio in Perth.

“We looked at the diary and there are no gaps between now and the end of the year.”

The couple, who became engaged on Valentine’s Day this year, had until now kept quiet their plans for their wedding despite constant questioning.

Many had been hoping for a pre-election wedding, which would make the 61-year-old the first prime minister to marry while in office.

It emerged on Sunday that strategists thought a wedding might distract from what will be a tough election campaign to win a second term, especially with the cost of living being a critical issue.

Polling shows the gap between Mr Albanese and his government and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and the Coalition narrowing and there could well be a hung parliament.

Mr Albanese has until May next year to head to the polls.

An election now is unlikely to be called this year, with the Queensland state election at the end of October and an official visit by King Charles III in the same month.

Mr Albanese is also expected to make several international trips, including to the CHOGM, APEC, East Asia and G20 leaders’ summits, a Quad meeting in India and attending the inauguration of incoming Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.

The final sitting of parliament for the year is in the final week of November.

Ms Haydon has been alongside Mr Albanese on several international and official visits, at functions and while campaigning.

Mr Albanese proposed at The Lodge after a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner earlier this year.

He told the media at the time they “couldn’t be more happy”.

“It’s such a joy to be able to share this news with people, and it’s wonderful that I’ve found a partner who I want to spend the rest of my life with,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Albanese and Ms Haydon met at an event in Melbourne a year Mr Albanese’s divorce from his wife, former NSW deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt.

He said he had asked the crowd at the event if there were any South Sydney fans in the audience, to which “Jodie yelled out, ‘Up the Rabbitohs’”.

After he introduced himself, Mr Albanese found out she also lived a couple of suburbs away in his electorate of Marrickville.

Mr Albanese and Ms Haydon dated for almost four years before their engagement.

He helped design the ring and said there had been “a lot of planning” that had gone into the proposal.

“A lot of planning and thought went into everything from the date, obviously Valentine’s Day, and the ring that I helped to design, and where to do it. I asked on one of the balconies here at the Lodge,” he said.

Ms Haydon thanked everyone for their “warm congratulations”.

“From our friends, from our families, from people that we don’t know. It’s just been overwhelming but beautiful,” she said.

Mr Albanese, 61, is the nation’s first prime minister to have been through a divorce after a 30-year marriage to Ms Tebbutt from 2000 until 2019.