Former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern and fiance Clarke Gayford have been engaged since 2019, but called off their wedding ceremony amid the Covid-19 Omicron outbreak in January 2022. Will they get their happy day this summer? <\/p>\n
Theres been coalition talks with Winston Peters, a premiership, a baby, a pandemic, a landslide victory and a shock resignation - so a little old wedding to her long-time love should be a stroll up the aisle for Dame Jacinda Ardern. <\/p>\n
The Herald understands the former Prime Minister, 43, and her TV presenter beau Clarke Gayford, 47, will wed this month. <\/p>\n
Gayford laughed when the Herald asked about the nuptials this week. <\/p>\n
I cant believe you thought you could call up and Id just tell you all. <\/p>\n
The Gisborne native said he had nothing to add. <\/p>\n
Ardern couldnt be contacted. <\/p>\n
Others with knowledge of the ceremony are also remaining tight-lipped about the weddings details. <\/p>\n
But the Herald has been told the event will take place at a vineyard in Hawkes Bay - more than 200km away from their originally planned ceremony which was scuttled by the Covid-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n
No bookings are available to the public on the day of the wedding in mid-January. <\/p>\n
The invite list is set to feature many of Arderns former colleagues in the now-opposition Labour Party, including party leader Chris Hipkins. <\/p>\n
The couple began dating in 2014 after Gayford, a marine enthusiast and host of Fish of the Day and Moving Houses, contacted the then-Labour list MP about proposed legislation in 2013. <\/p>\n
Gayford popped the question five years later with his grandmothers ring on Mokotahi Hill in northern Hawkes Bay, as Diplomatic Protection Service officers kept watch nearby and a local dog tried to eat the chocolate hed packed for the occasion. <\/p>\n
The cliff-top proposal came 10 months after the birth of the couples daughter Neve and 18 months after Ardern became the countrys second youngest Prime Minister when the then-Labour Party leader formed a coalition with Peters-helmed NZ First. <\/p>\n
Theyd made no plans at all for the wedding, Ardern told media after news of the engagement broke almost two weeks after the Easter proposal, when a ring was spotted on her left middle finger during a ceremony at Pike River. <\/p>\n
I have absolutely no idea, she said, when asked when the wedding would be. <\/p>\n
Her words would prove prescient. <\/p>\n
Less than a year later the Covid-19 pandemic kicked off a round of restrictions that included lockdowns, border closures to those without citizenship or residency, and an at-times oversubscribed managed quarantine system for Kiwis coming home. <\/p>\n
The couples wedding would eventually be booked for the 2022 summer, the venue understood to be the farm homestead at Nicks Head Station, 25km south of Gisborne. <\/p>\n
The luxury rural estate, at which Grammy Award-winner Lorde was also understood to be on hand to entertain the couples loved ones and friends, is owned by US hedge fund billionaire John Griffin and his wife Amy. <\/p>\n
But the arrival of the Omicron variant in late January 2022 and subsequent move to the red traffic light system - which restricted gatherings to fewer than 100 - spoiled the pairs plans. <\/p>\n
Such is life, Ardern said of their decision to call off the wedding. <\/p>\n
I am no different to, dare I say, thousands of other New Zealanders. <\/p>\n
The three-time Mt Albert MP had previously described herself as the least-engaged bride, as Gayford was in charge of organising the nuptials, but vowed there were no plans to delay their vows indefinitely. <\/p>\n
When she resigned as Prime Minister almost a year ago, citing exhaustion, the bride-to-be included a special message to Gayford alongside promises to try and find ways to keep working for New Zealand and take Neve to her first day of school. <\/p>\n
And to Clarke: lets finally get married. <\/p>\n
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features. <\/p>\n
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Former PM Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford to marry this month - New Zealand Herald<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern and fiance Clarke Gayford have been engaged since 2019, but called off their wedding ceremony amid the Covid-19 Omicron outbreak in January 2022. Will they get their happy day this summer? Theres been coalition talks with Winston Peters, a premiership, a baby, a pandemic, a landslide victory and a shock resignation - so a little old wedding to her long-time love should be a stroll up the aisle for Dame Jacinda Ardern Continue reading