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10 things you didn't know about Jacinda Ardern
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10 things you didn't know about Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Adern is the new Labour Party leader.

Jacinda Ardern is the new leader of the Labour Party - that we all know by now.

But did you know she's also an amateur DJ and in a long-term relationship with TV and radio personality Clarke Gayford?

Here are a few more things about the 37-year-old you might not know.

  • Born on July 26, 1980, if she wins the election she would be the first Prime Minister born in the 1980s.
  • She went to Morrinsville College and earned a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Waikato in Hamilton.
  • Raised a Mormon, she left the church before entering Parliament.
  • Her post-uni career involved working for future Auckland Mayor Phil Goff and then-Prime Minister Helen Clark, as well a stints in the UK and New York.
  • Her match-ups against Nikki Kaye in the Auckland Central electorate never went to plan - Ms Kaye beat her in both 2011 and 2014.
  • Ms Ardern finally had an electorate to call her own when David Shearer vacated his Mt Albert seat. She won in a landslide by-election in February, 2017.
  • She was a guest DJ at the Laneway Festival in 2014, where she played tracks by Sid Vicious, Snoop Dogg and the Smashing Pumpkins.
  • She met Gayford after he wrote to her about the Government Communications Security Bureau Amendment Bill. He'd written to Nikki Kaye first, but she didn't reply, so he tried Ms Ardern instead - they hit it off over coffee and a shared love of Kiwi drum'n'bass band Concord Dawn.
  • Her first cat was named "Norm", after former Prime Minister Norman Kirk. Her current feline is Paddles, who is polydactyl - born with more than the usual number of toes.
  • Her favourite drink is whiskey.