Anthony Albanese wasn't looking for a relationship. Three words from Jodie changed his mind.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his fiancé Jodie Haydon are the picture of a loved-up power couple.

But what you may not know is how their union came to be, starting with three surprising words that kicked everything off in 2020.

It was about 18 months after the prime minister's first marriage to former deputy premier of New South Wales, Carmel Tebbutt, ended, and he wasn't exactly looking for love.

Jodie was in the crowd at an event he was speaking at and neither of them expected sparks to fly.

Until one sentence changed everything.

"Jodie yelled out, 'Up the Rabbitohs', is how we met, when I went round the tables," the prime minister told 60 Minutes.

Jodie had been single for some time before meeting 'Anthony', as she calls him. The pair ran into each other a week later and Jodie could see a spark.

She followed it, sending Albanese, who was then the Opposition Leader and her local member, a private message on social media.

She was rewarded for the ballsy move.

"The message that Jodie sent me was that we had a lot in common, South Sydney, support for the Labor Party. And I sent a message back saying, 'Yep, but what's your position on craft beer?' So we met up at Young Henry's in Newtown for a beer on a Friday afternoon, and we just got on," Alabense said.

And as Jodie said, "the rest is history".

The sweetest love story.

Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon attend the Midwinter Ball in Canberra. Image: Getty

As a kid from the Central Coast, Jodie never imagined her life would end up here.

Born in 1978, she grew up as the daughter of two teachers, attending Kincumber High School. After leaving school she went into finance, and specifically into working in the superannuation sector. In 2022, she moved into a new role as women's officer for the NSW Public Service Association.

Life as the future wife of the prime minister is not what Jodie had in mind growing up.

"Did I see my life panning out this way? Absolutely not," she told 60 Minutes. "I think many of my other single girlfriends and I thought we would end up like the Golden Girls one day."

However, life in the spotlight is something Jodie has taken on willingly.

"On these trips that we do, I actually take them quite seriously, because you know that you are also representing Australia in that moment."

Since being by Albanese's side, Haydon has been on prime minister's visits to Dubai, Paris, London and New Delhi. She has attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the White House State Dinner hosted by former US President Joe Biden.

Despite the official nature of their duties, the pair like to enjoy downtime whenever they can get it.

"The relationship isn't about the job that I happen to have, or the job that Jodie happens to have. You know we have moments where it's just Anthony and Jodie," Albanese said.

"Just us, that's right," Jodie added.

After their sweet meet cute, the pair have gone from strength to strength, and are now engaged to be married. It's expected that they'll wed after the 2025 federal election.

However, like any nearly-married couple who have been together for years, they're aware of each other's annoying habits. While Jodie wouldn't say anything negative about her paramour, Alabanese 'outed' himself.

"I'll out myself here. I completely have to be organised, things done in a certain way," he divulged. When asked if he might be a little OCD Jodie replied, "A hundred per cent."

Their main gripe? Sharing the same bathroom sink.

A Valentine's engagement.

Albanese announced his engagement to Jodie in February 2024.

Sharing the news on his socials, Albanese posted a selfie of him and Jodie with the engagement ring alongside the caption, "She said yes".

The proposal occurred on Valentine's Day.

She said yes ❤️ pic.twitter.com/aU1Mk2WInH

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) February 14, 2024

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong reacted to the news saying: "Love is a beautiful thing. I’m so happy for you both!"

Watch: Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon meeting American President Joe Biden. Post continues below.

The couple shared a rare insight into their upcoming wedding on 60 Minutes, revealing a sweet detail.

"The only thing that we've decided is the ring bearer, of course, which is Toto," Albanese said.

Win or lose come election day, the prime minister said he's excited to spend the rest of his life with Jodie.

"We're best friends as well as in a relationship and that's just tremendous," he said.

The Copacabana beach house.

While speaking on 60 Minutes, the prime minister also spoke about their controversial purchase, a Copacabana beach house. The home, bought in 2024 for $4.3 million, made headlines given the eye-watering price, but Albanese said it's been a long-term goal to create a new Albanese-Haydon family home.

"Jodie and I are getting married," he told the program. "What you don't do is move into the family home where Carmel and I raised Nathan together as a family.

"And guess what, Karl? At some stage, ah, I won't be prime minister into my eighties, and therefore we have bought a place close to where Jodie grew up, where her family are all based."

He re-iterated that buying the home was very much a personal decision, not a political one. "And I think Australians get that," he added.

Anthony Albanese's childhood.

Albanese's life outside of politics is interesting, to say the least.

Speaking to Mamamia's No Filter podcast, Albanese chatted with Mia Freedman about his private childhood, the influence of being raised by a strong, single mother and the search for his father.

Finding out about his dad.

As a teen, Albanese sat down with his mother for dinner. It was just the two of them, as it always had been. Albanese's father had died in a car crash before he was born.

Or at least, that's what he thought until that dinner. His mother told him his father was most likely alive and living in Italy.

She had met him overseas and fallen pregnant: that part of the story he'd known his whole life was true, but Albanese's father was engaged to an Italian woman and had stayed with her. He'd never come to Australia.

The truth was that Maryanne was in her 20s when she fell pregnant on her travels. She was single and Catholic, which left her with very few options.

So she came up with a story: she had met, fallen in love, and married a man in Italy who had then died in a tragic car accident before her son was born.

"The term illegitimate or bastard are pretty brutal terms. It was more 'honourable' for her to be considered a widow, rather than a single mum at this time," Albanese said on No Filter.

But on one fateful night, Maryanne decided to tell her son Albanese the truth.

"She later said it was so difficult for my mum, to tell me her story, because she felt as though there was some shame in what had occurred. It took a lot of courage."

Albanese's mother Maryanne raised him alone in public housing in Sydney's inner west while on an invalid pension.

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A post shared by Anthony Albanese (@albomp)

Anthony Albanese's quest to find his father.

Initially, Albanese says his focus was on his mum's wellbeing, rather than the potential of finding his father.

"I was a pretty tough little 14-year-old, so my response to her was: 'I don't care, I've got you and you're all I need'."

"She was very loving. She gave up so much for me. And like a lot of women at the time, she really lived her aspirations through me: trying to give me a better shot at life than she had," Albanese said of his mum.

Maryanne passed in 2002. She was only 65 years old.

"Once she died, I felt like I could tell people my story and start to search for my father without feeling like I was dishonouring her contribution," said Albanese.

By this time, Albanese had married his then-wife Carmel, and the couple had welcomed a son, Nathan.

Nathan, then four or five years old, went with his father to visit Maryanne's gravesite. While at the site, Nathan said to Albanese, "Where's your dad?"

It stuck with Albanese: "I felt I couldn't lie to Nathan. It wasn't fair on him. As I got older, I felt I needed closure."

When looking for his father, all that Albanese had to go off was one photo from a ship his dad had previously worked on.

While in Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices, Albanese was about to chair a dinner of the Australian Transport Council when he received a phone call.

"It's a moment I'll never forget. Sherry said 'we've found him', and it took my breath away because I didn't think that would happen," Albanese wrote in an article for Mamamia in 2017.

Listen to Mamamia's No Filter podcast: The private life of Anthony Albanese. Post continues after audio.

At the age of 46, Albanese travelled to Italy and, with the help of the Australian Embassy in Rome, where he met his father Carlo and his half-brother and half-sister.

"He walked in and opened his arms to me and we embraced," Albanese said. "It was quite – it was incredibly generous of him, I think, and it was a very poignant moment. There were tears and we talked for a few hours."

His father's family, and wife of multiple decades, were welcoming of Albanese.

"They were worried initially. But they were incredibly generous. They realised, it is what it is: life is complex. Italians get that!"

Albanese continued to visit Italy and said his final goodbye to his ill father, who died in 2014.

"I was very pleased that I was able to have that final engagement with him. He was lucid and he told me – the last conversation we had was that he was glad that we had found each other."

Anthony Albanese's family life.

Albanese and ex-wife, NSW deputy premier Carmel Tebutt, were together for 30 years, before separating on New Year's Day, 2019. The pair share a 24-year-old son, Nathan Albanese, together.

"I was devastated when that relationship ended, and it took me a while to recover. I didn't see it coming," he said.

Albanese credited his work life for keeping him occupied mentally. As to how Albanese managed the dating world post-divorce: "carefully" he said with a laugh on No Filter.

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese, Jodie Haydon and Nathan Albanese celebrate victory during the Labor Party election night, 2022. Image: Getty.

Now Albanese's life personal life revolves around his fiancé Jodie, son Nathan, and beloved dog Toto.

Speaking to Adelaide Now about Toto, Albanese said: "When I’ve been away for a bit – in parliament or out on the road – there's nothing quite like getting back and opening the front door. In that moment of wild joy, Toto is poetry in commotion."

He continued: "There's a beautiful, open-hearted honesty about dogs that brings out the best in us, and any person who spends time in the company of a dog is all the better for it. Toto is loving, loyal and she's great company."

This article was published on December 13, 2021 and has since been updated.

Feature Image: Instagram/ @albomp.

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