Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard has confirmed her split from partner of 15 years, Tim Mathieson.
The former leader – who is currently the Chair of Beyond Blue and the inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership – told the Adelaide Advertiser that the pair had parted ways over a year ago.
Gillard met Mathieson at the hair salon where he worked in 2004, but they did not start dating until two years later.
“Every four or five weeks on a Sunday morning, I used to go in and work my way through the newspapers as my hair was done,” Gillard wrote in her 2014 autobiography My Story.
“Tim and I got talking about politics: initially he thought I was a state member of parliament. We had later run into each other on a tram and had a chat.”
In 2006, the pair became ‘official’ after catching up for lunch during the “politically quiet time of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games”.
During Gillard’s three years as Prime Minister, she and Mathieson – who was dubbed Australia’s “First Bloke” – made history by being the first unmarried couple to live at The Lodge.
Gillard currently splits her time between Adelaide and the UK, where she chairs the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at the prestigious King’s College.
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