Anthony Albanese fled to London and Portugal to spend time with friends, clear his head and re-evaluate his priorities after his wife told him she wanted a divorce.
The Prime Minister opened up about those devastating two weeks during a radio interview on Tuesday, reiterating that he was blindsided by his wife’s revelation she was unhappy in the marriage.
‘I didn’t understand it, but I came to accept it,’ he told Melbourne‘s Triple M radio.
Carmel Tebbutt, the former deputy premier of NSW, told Mr Albanese she wanted a divorce on New Years Day in 2019, after 19 years of marriage and 30 years together.
By March, he was on a flight to London to visit friends, and then on to Lisbon. In total, he spent two weeks abroad.
‘It was two weeks to clear the air, determine what I wanted to do with my life, decide whether I wanted to run again in the election,’ he said.
Carmel Tebbutt, the former deputy premier of NSW, told Mr Albanese she wanted a divorce on New Years Day in 2019, after 19 years of marriage and 30 years together
He made the decision to come home and throw himself into public life, announcing a run for the top job in the lead up to the 2022 election.
Mr Albanese and Labor romped to victory, and along the way Mr Albanese found love again with Jodie Haydon.
The duo met at an event in Melbourne in which he addressed the crowd and mentioned his love of the South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL club.
Ms Haydon was a guest and revealed she was also an avid fan of the team. They hit it off and have been together ever since.
‘I never did Tinder,’ Mr Albanese said, acknowledging it would be ‘fine’ for him to use it – ‘except [everyone] would know about it’.
He said: ‘It was [incredibly challenging], but you live in the public eye. It was very difficult for me personally, but Carmel made a decision that she wanted to move on with her life… our son had reached 18, he’d graduated from school.
Ms Tebbutt was seen campaigning for Minister for Indigenous Affairs Linda Burney during Mr Albanese’s run for the top job
‘It was a decision I found difficult but one she obviously had the right to do.’
As for his new relationship, Mr Albanese said it’s ‘fantastic’ that he ‘has someone to spend his personal life with’, along with his son Nathan, particularly given the complex challenges that come with running a country.
‘I’m most proud of my resilience,’ he said. ‘I’ve hung in there, I’ve stayed true to my values and I think I’ve made a difference.’
Mr Albanese did the media rounds in Melbourne on Tuesday morning. He’s still promoting his federal Budget, which achieved a surplus for the first time in 15 years, and fighting back against the Greens over his housing bill.
The Greens and the Coalition last week blocked a vote in the Senate on the Housing Australian Future Fund to build 30,000 new social and affordable homes in the next five years.
The Greens say it doesn’t do enough to solve the crisis. They want a national rent freeze and the annual spending cap of $500m to be increased significantly.
Mr Albanese and Labor romped to victory, and along the way Mr Albanese found love again with Jodie Haydon
The duo met at an event in Melbourne in which he addressed the crowd and mentioned his love of the South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL club
And Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also opposed the policy, warning rising migration over the next five years will make the housing crisis significantly worse.
He also argued the government has ‘no plan’ to ease the pressures on Australians.
‘You can’t announce a Big Australia policy, with 1.5 million people coming to Australia over five years, competing with Australians who can’t rent a unit or a house now, who can’t afford to buy a house now,’ Mr Dutton said on Monday.
‘You’re going to put upward pressure on prices, both rent and home prices, at the same time that you’re choking supply’.
But the prime minister said Mr Dutton’s argument is not ‘based on fact’, again insisting his housing policy provides a genuine solution.
Under the proposed policy, Labor would invest $10billion and all returns – up to $500 million per year – would be spent on building the new properties.
As for his new relationship, Mr Albanese said it’s ‘fantastic’ that he ‘has someone to spend his personal life with’, along with his son Nathan, particularly given the complex challenges that come with running a country
In its current form, Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather describes the bill as a ‘gamble on the stock market’ that his party is not willing to take, noting the Future Fund lost 1.2 per cent in 2022.
‘If Labor had invested the $10 billion already, $120 million would have been lost, with no profits generated to build a single home,’ Mr Chandler-Mather said.
Mr Albanese’s proposal would see 20,000 social housing properties built within the first five years of the scheme – 4,000 of which would be allocated specifically for women and children fleeing domestic violence.
Older women who are at risk of homelessness would also receive special consideration, while 10,000 affordable housing properties would be made available to frontline workers.
