New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford are engaged to be married, her office said Friday.
A spokesperson said the couple became engaged over the Easter weekend.
Reporters spotted what appeared to be a diamond ring on the politician’s finger during a ceremony at the Pike River Mine earlier Friday.
Ardern, 38, and Gayford, 41, are raising daughter Neve who will be one-year-old in June. Gayford spent the majority of Neve’s first year as a stay-at-home dad.
The Labour party leader was the first head of government to give birth while in office since Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto welcomed her daughter in 1990.
In an interview last year Ardern was asked if she would propose to Gayford.
“No I would not ask, no,” she said.
“I want to put him through the pain and torture of having to agonize about that question himself, that’s letting him off the hook, absolutely not.”
Ardern has emerged as a unifying figure since being elected as New Zealand’s leader in September 2017.
She has drawn universal praise for her response to last month’s Christchurch terror attacks on two mosques which left 51 dead.
She is known as sharp and personable, with a good sense of humour, and driven by passions for human rights and social justice. She has described herself as a pragmatic idealist.
