Peter Dutton is the leader of the Liberal Party, and yet no one seems to know very much about the MP.
A staunch conservative, Peter was a Queensland police officer for nine years and started in politics as a member for Dickson back in 2001.
From there, he continued his journey moving into the Ministry, becoming Minister for Workforce Participation in 2004 and continuing to climb the ranks until he became Minister for Home Affairs in 2017, and Minister for Defence in March 2021.
Information on Peter Dutton’s career is easy enough to find online but his personal life, first marriage of just a few months, his daughter born to a previous partner and his current wife, Kirilly Dutton are not as well known.
Who is Kirilly Dutton?
It was politics that ignited the spark of Peter and Kirilly’s relationship.
The pair were first introduced by a friend of Kirilly’s who was, at the time, in a relationship with Liberal MP Ross Vasta, the Daily Mail reports.
Peter married Kirilly (nee Brumby) in July 2003 in a romantic Italian affair, after what she described to the Courier Mail as a slow-burning romance.
At the time the couple first met, the industrious Kirilly had “little time for a personal life” and was working 14-hour days as the personal assistant of Sarina Russo, the founder of the Sarina Russo Group – Australia’s largest private sector employment provider.
Kirilly was eventually won over by the MP’s “sense of humour and mystery.”
Peter and his wife Kirilly got married in 2003. They are pictured here in May 2019. (Credit: Instagram)
Kirilly would go on to give birth to the couple’s two sons; Harry, aged 20 and Tom, aged 22, while quickly taking on the role of stepmother to Rebecca, aged 20, Peter’s daughter from a previous relationship.
Kirilly, who said Peter is an “amazing father and the kids adore him”, revealed she’s a single mum for six months of the year on top of running two childcare businesses, but she doesn’t mind, she told News Corp.
The publication reports she would prefer her husband to leave his work in Canberra, “so when he walks through the front door at home, it’s all about the kids”.
Peter with his wife, Kirilly and their three children. (Credit: Instagram)
What does Kirilly do for work?
A former part-time babysitter, Kirilly now owns and operates two Camelia Avenue Childcare Centres, which the Daily Mail called a “million dollar business.”
The businesses are both owned by Dutton Building & Development, a company started by Peter and his father.
Alongside the lucrative childcare business, Kirilly and Peter have an impressive property portfolio together of six properties, one of which is a shopping centre in Townsville.
In February 2021, the couple sold their holiday home in ‘Millionaire’s Row’ on the Gold Coast for $6million.
Peter and Kirilly in a 2001 election campaign, before they were married. (Credit: Instagram)
Who is Peter Dutton’s first wife?
Kirilly is Peter’s second wife.
Little is known about the conservative liberal MP’s first wife, apart from the fact that the pair were married in 1992, when Dutton was just 22 years old and still working as a police officer.
The marriage lasted only a few months during his early 20s.
The Opposition Leader shared in an interview with Sky News, “Well it was a tough issue at the time because I’d been married when I was about 23 for about six months and picked up my then wife from a night shift [as a police officer] and she said, ‘I don’t love you any more.”
“It was … pretty shocking at the time but we just got married too young, I was working too hard and didn’t have enough time for the relationship and it was just one of those things.”
In the lead up to the election in May, Peter has shared more about his previous relationship, in which he had one child.
“I was engaged to … my daughter’s mum and Rebecca was conceived in that relationship and that relationship broke up. Kirrily and I met after that” through friends, he said.
Kirrily has become a stepmother to Rebecca with Peter sharing, “In terms of how Kirilly responded to that, again, all in a stride and … [the kids] have never seen each other as stepbrother and sister, that has never been language in our household,” Dutton said. “The kids have always been treated equally by me, by Kirilly and I think that’s been an important thing as well.”
Peter is away from his family six months a year, but makes sure that when he’s home it’s all about the kids. (Credit: Instagram)
Who is the mother of Peter Dutton’s first daughter, Rebecca Dutton?
Dutton’s daughter Rebecca, now 20, was born in March 2002, during the MP’s time as a member for Dickson, his first role in politics after nine years on the police force.
The identity of Rebecca’s mother is not public information.
