Tony Abbott’s sister, Christine Forster, has opened up about her decision to invite her brother — one of the most outspoken voices in the ‘no’ campaign against same-sex marriage — to her recent wedding.
Christine, who recently married her longtime partner Virginia Edwards, said the decision to invite her sibling was a no-brainer — at the end of the day, he is family. She did, however, joke that her brother had banked on an invitation, without actually having been asked.
Speaking in parliament after same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia, the former PM said that he was looking forward to attending the marriage of his sister Christine to Virginia.
“I thought that was a bit presumptuous — you haven’t got your invite yet buddy,” Christine told ABC’s Australian Story on Monday night.
Of course, in the end, the family were able to put aside their differences to celebrate the beautiful occasion.
“Tony and I we were, I hope, able to demonstrate that even though you have diametrically opposed views and sometimes one or the other of you might say something that really pisses off the other one, ultimately you keep it respectful, still love each other, you’re still family, and it’s not any reason to have a cataclysmic bust up,” Christine said.
She later added: “I’m really optimistic, about the fact, that everybody now, is starting to understand where we all sit in this new shared future.”
In the interview, the duo, who have been together for 10 years and engaged for the past four, explained that their families once struggled to accept their relationship. They were both married when they met while dropping their sons off at daycare in 2008.
“We had six children and two families that were going to be catastrophically blown off the planet by Christine and I doing what we needed to do, and that was to be together,” Virginia told the program.
WATCH: The moment same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia. Post continues…
The duo married on Friday afternoon in a cocktail party-style wedding held at a secret location in the centre of Sydney. An afterparty was scheduled to take place at the Stonewall Hotel on Oxford Street.
In an interview on The Project ahead of the wedding, Christine, a vocal marriage equality campaigner, said their happy day had been a long time coming.
“For us to be able to get married here in Sydney with our friends and our family at our sides, and to get married under Australian law, it’s amazing,” she said.
“I’m still in some ways pinching myself about this, because it was such a long time coming and it was a very long and hard fight for marriage equality in this country.”
Congratulations again to the happy couple!
