During his victory speech when he became Australia’s 31st Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese famously thanked his partner Jodie Haydon and son Nathan, but he also made sure to mention his ex-wife and Nathan’s mother, Carmel Tebbutt.
After thanking Nathan for his support during the campaign, Anthony revealed to his supporters at Sydney’s Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL Club that his ex-wife was celebrating his win with him.
“Your mother is here tonight, Carmel. We are both so proud of the caring, wonderful, smart, young man you have become,” he said to his son.
Anthony and Carmel met in the late 1980s and tied the knot in 2000, welcoming their son Nathan a year later. In fact, they were quite the political power couple with Mr Albanese entering Federal Parliament in 1996, whilst Ms Tebbutt first entered the NSW upper house in 1998.
“My special thanks go to my partner and best friend, Carmel Tebbutt, for her constant support, advice and outstanding political judgement,” he said in his maiden speech as the Federal Member for Grayndler.
Anthony and Carmel met in the 1980s and married in 2000.
(Image: Getty)But in January 2019, the then-Labor MP announced that he and Carmel had broken up.
“I am deeply saddened that my relationship of over 30 years with Carmel Tebbutt has ended in separation,” he said in a short statement.
“We will continue to share parenting responsibilities of our 18-year-old son Nathan, who has successfully completed his HSC and has developed into an outstanding young man who we are both proud of.
“There are no third parties involved.”
Even after their split, Mr Albanese thanked his ex-wife at his first press conference as Labor leader.
“To my partner of 30 years, Carmel, I thank you for your love, your support and your advice over all of those years,’ he told reporters in Sydney back in 2019.
“Our relationship has changed, but I have nothing but best wishes for her future.”
Not only was Ms Tebbutt in attendance at Albo’s victory party but she was also spotted handing out flyers for one of his frontbenchers at a polling booth on Election Day.
What’s more, Albo revealed that she was looking after his beloved dog Toto whilst he was on the campaign trail.
“She’s been helping in very practical ways. We talk regularly about what Nathan’s doing, or the dog,” the Daily Mail reported him saying.
Carmel Tebbutt was NSW’s first ever female deputy premier.
(Image: AAP)Ms Tebbutt has quite an impressive resume herself.
She started working for the NSW Government in 1999 as the Minister for Juvenile Justice and then served as Minister for Health, Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Community Services and Minister for Climate Change and the Environment.
The political powerhouse then moved up the ranks to become the first ever female deputy premier of NSW, serving under leaders Nathan Rees and Kristina Keneally between 2008 and 2011, before resigning from state politics at the 2015 NSW election.
She is currently the CEO at NSW Mental Health Co-ordinating Council.
Albo met his current partner Jodie Haydon at an event in Melbourne where he had been speaking.
When he’d asked whether there were any South Sydney rugby league supporters in the audience, the now Prime Minister told the Australian Women’s Weekly that “Jodie yelled out, ‘Up the Rabbitohs’.”
“We had what I thought would just be a drink at Young Henrys in Newtown, and we got on really well. That’s how it started,” he said.
“I’d reached a point in my life where I was enjoying being single,” Jodie explained.
