Thursday 19 May 2022 06:43 AM Anthony Albanese could be Australia's first separated PM after wife dumped him trends now

Should he win on Saturday, Anthony Albanese would make history as Australia's first ever prime minister to have separated from his wife after a marriage breakdown. 

Since the introduction of no-fault divorce in 1975, Oppositions in Australia have lost seven elections with a divorced and remarried leader, even as the US and the UK elected leaders who had gone through a separation.

Albanese's estranged wife Carmel Tebbutt, a former deputy premier of New South Wales, announced their separation in January 2019 after almost 19 years of marriage.

The couple had met in NSW Young Labor during the late 1980s.

The potential future prime minister later said he 'didn't see it coming' when Ms Tebbutt abruptly ended their marriage on New Year's Day in 2019

'I found it very tough. The relationship was 30 years old,' he told ABC Radio in 2022. 

Mr Albanese said the couple's only child, their son Nathan, had just completed his HSC exams and turned 18 when Ms Tebbutt dumped him. 'It's made for a difficult period. I certainly will always, always remember New Year's Eve and New Year's Day for that momentous event in my life,' he said.

'I think part of going through a difficult period and coming out the other end is acknowledging that you're going through it. I found it very tough. The relationship was 30 years old.' 

 Mr Albanese, 59, has since moved on with First State Super financial worker Jodie Haydon, 43, who is 16 years his junior.

The pair were first spotted kissing at an upmarket Sydney restaurant in June 2020. 

He has maintained a strong relationship with his son who was just 18 when his parents became divorced. 

In March 2019 Mr Albanese took three weeks off and visited London and Portugal - a trip he credits for helping him heal after the break up.

'I needed to stop trying to understand it and just accept it and accept that it was a decision that had been made and she was moving on with her life in a different direction and I needed to do the same,' he said.