“Well,I made up for it all in one go by ending up with the leader of the Labor Party,” Haydon once joked in an interview. “I’m forgiven! I’ve probably gone to number one in the ranking now out of her near 30 grandchildren.”
That ranking was sealed on Valentine’s Day,whenPrime Minister Anthony Albanese proposed to Haydon at The Lodge with a ring he designed himself. They announced the news in a post on Thursday on the platform formerly known as Twitter – also a sentimental decision,given it was the social media site that kick-started it all.
Their meeting story is famous;then-opposition leader Albanese,who had separated from his wife,former NSW deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt,almost a year earlier,was speaking at a Melbourne union conference in late 2019 and asked South Sydney supporters to identify themselves. Haydon,who worked for a union super fund,shouted,“Up the Rabbitohs!”
Albanese introduced himself,but it was Haydon who made the next move by sending him a direct message on Twitter.
They met for a beer at Young Henry’s brewery in Newtown,and Albanese invited her to the Woodford folk festival soon after. They discovered they had much in common. He is passionate about music;she worked for years in the music section of Grace Bros. He was raised by a courageous single mother;her guiding light was her grandmother,who put herself through teachers college and raised nine children while juggling a career.
Their values aligned,too. Haydon’s grandparents,both her parents,and eight of her maternal aunts and uncles were ABC-watching,Labor-voting public school teachers. As she told News Corp in 2022,her family taught her that,“If you care about education,if you care about where you get healthcare,if you care about public transport,if you care about the planet,fairness,equality,you have to take an interest in politics.”