New Zealand PM’s Baby
June 27, 2018
Last Friday, on June 21, New Zealand’s first family welcomed a new addition when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave birth to a daughter, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford. Neve comes from the Irish name Niamh, meaning bright or radiant, and Te Aroha means love in the language of New Zealand’s native Maori people. Te Aroha is also the name of a mountain and small town near Ardern’s birthplace of Morrinsville in the North Island’s Waikato district.
New Zealand Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford, pose with their newborn daughter at Auckland City Hospital on June 21, 2018. Credit: Office of the Prime Minister of New Zealand
Neve is the first child for Ardern and her partner, television host Clarke Gayford. Ardern, who leads New Zealand’s Labour Party, became prime minister in October 2017. Ardern’s deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, will act in her stead during her six-week maternity leave.
On June 21, 2018, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern became the first world leader since 1990 to have a baby while in office. Credit: © Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images
Ardern is the second world leader to give birth while in office. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto—who shares a birthday with young Neve Ardern Gayford—was the first. Bhutto gave birth to her daughter Bakhtawar during her first term in office in 1990.
Ardern is the second noteworthy politician to give birth in 2018. On April 8, United States Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois became the first sitting U.S. senator to give birth when she delivered her daughter, Maile Pearl.
