PHOTO: ODT FILES‘‘Welcome to political widowhood’’ my husband and I heard when I was first elected as an MP way back in 2002. But there is also the public scrutiny of MPs’ spouses and their families that others do not have to endure. Strangers comment on their driving, on what is in their shopping trolley, complain about what the MP partner did, or said or — if the MP partner is a woman — wore on TV. Worse, someone will take that deeply personal and very real experience and turn it into a public political attack. When the strains on a family from political widowhood spill out into the public realm, for whatever reason and through whatever channel, these are deeply personal, tightly held matters.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 19, 2026 17:03 UTC