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Here’s a look at the life of Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand.
Birth date: July 26, 1980
Birth place: Hamilton, New Zealand
Birth name: Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern
Father: Ross Ardern, police officer
Mother: Laurell Ardern, school cook
Children: with Clarke Gayford: Neve Te Aroha
Education: Waikato University, B.A., 2001, communications studies
Religion: Agnostic
Worked as a staff member for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.
Ardern is engaged to television presenter Clarke Gayford.
Raised Mormon, but left the church.
November 8, 2008 – Enters New Zealand’s Parliament, elected into the Labour Party as a list MP.
February 25, 2017 – Wins a special election for the MP seat representing Mt. Albert.
March 7, 2017 – The Labour Party elects Ardern deputy leader.
August 1, 2017 – The Labour Party elects Ardern leader.
October 19, 2017 – NZ First leader Winston Peters announces on television that he supports Ardern as prime minister in a coalition government.
October 26, 2017 – Sworn in as New Zealand’s prime minister.
January 19, 2018 – Announces her pregnancy.
June 21, 2018 – Ardern gives birth to daughter Neve Te Aroha, becoming the first world leader to give birth since Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto in 1990. Announces she will take six weeks leave following the baby’s birth. Peters, now deputy prime minister, serves as acting prime minister during that time.
March 15, 2019 – Ardern condemns the attacks at two mosques in the city of Christchurch that left 51 individuals dead.
March 18, 2019 – Ardern confirms that New Zealand’s government has agreed to reform the country’s gun laws in the wake of the Christchurch mosques shootings.
March 19, 2020 – Ardern closes New Zealand’s borders to foreign visitors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
March 23, 2020 – Announces a nationwide lockdown, requiring all non-essential workers to stay at home.
April 15, 2020 – Announces that she and her cabinet will take a 20% pay cut for the next six months because of the coronavirus pandemic.
August 17, 2020 – Ardern announces she is delaying the country’s parliamentary election by four weeks to October 17 after the reemergence of Covid-19 in the country last week.
October 17, 2020 – Ardern wins a second term in office as New Zealand’s prime minister.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
PHOTO:
Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern speaks to media on August 1, 2017, after being appointed the new Labour leader only weeks out from the New Zealand general election.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
PHOTO:
Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Prime Minister-designate Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters shake hands during a coalition agreement signing at Parliament on October 24, 2017, in Wellington. For weeks after the country’s 2017 general election, there was no clear victor, with neither major party winning an outright majority.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
PHOTO:
Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, her partner Clarke Gayford, and Gayford’s nieces Rosie and Nina Cowan arrive at Parliament after a swearing-in ceremony at Government House on October 26, 2017.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
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Jorge Silve/AFP/Getty Images
United States President Donald Trump joins South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak, Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Taiwan’s representative James Soong to take part in a “family photo” during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 11, 2017.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
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Pool/Getty Images
Barack Obama attends a pōwhiri — a formal Māori welcoming ceremony — with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at Government House on March 22, 2018 during his visit to Auckland.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
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Victoria Jones/WPA Pool/Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II greets Jacinda Ardern at Buckingham Palace on April 19, 2018 in London, England. Ardern wears a kahu huruhuru, a traditional Māori garment worn on special occasions.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
PHOTO:
Hannah Peters/Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern and partner Clarke Gayford pose for a photo with their newborn baby girl Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford on June 24, 2018 in Auckland. Ardern was only the second world leader to give birth in office.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
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Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern holds her daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, as her partner Clarke Gayford looks on during the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit on September 24, 2018, a day before the General Debate of the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
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Lynn Grieveson/Newsroom/Getty Images
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wears a hijab as she embraces a Muslim woman at the Kilbirnie Mosque in Wellington, two days after a White supremacist attacked two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
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Mark Tantrum/The New Zealand Government/Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern greets Prince William with a hongi, a traditional Māori greeting, as they attend an Anzac Day service remembering fallen soldiers on April 25, 2019 in Auckland. Prince William was in New Zealand to commemorate the people killed in the Christchurch mosque terror attacks.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
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Dom Thomas/AFP/Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern hugs a first responder from the St John’s ambulance team that helped those injured in the White Island volcano eruption on December 9, 2019.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
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Fiona Goodall/Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern and her coalition partner, Green Party leader James Shaw and former Labour Party politician Dover Samuels, cook breakfast on February 6 to mark Waitangi Day, a national holiday commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between Māori chief and the British Crown.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
PHOTO:
Fiona Goodall/Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern listens as Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield speaks to media on September 21, 2020 in Auckland. Bloomfield and Ardern ran daily briefings during New Zealand’s nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
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Fiona Goodall/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images
National leader Judith Collins and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speak during a live leaders debate on September 22, 2020 in Auckland.
Photos: Jacinda Ardern: Her first term in photos
PHOTO:
Hannah Peters/Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern casts her vote on October 3, 2020 in Auckland. Early voting is available in New Zealand ahead of the October 17 election.