Chris Hipkins announced his engagement on Monday. Photo / Chris Hipkins/Instagram
Labour leader and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is engaged to his partner Toni Grace.
In a post on Instagram this afternoon, Hipkins said he hadn’t won the mega $55 million Lotto Powerball over the weekend “but I did hit the jackpot”, adding a ring emoji.
“Toni, everyday with you is incredible,” he wrote.
“Through the ups and downs of politics, parenthood and life you are always so calm, optimistic and caring. You’re my rock, and I’m so excited about our life together. There simply aren’t enough words to express how much I love you and how lucky I am you’ve agreed to marry me.”
The post featured the happy couple showing off Toni’s engagement ring.
Speaking to reporters later today, Hipkins said he proposed last Thursday, which was Toni’s birthday.
“She said yes, and I was very, very happy about that, as you can imagine. Then we had a big family gathering for her birthday over the weekend on Saturday. That’s when we told the family. Now we’re telling the rest of the world today.”
Hipkins said the pair were in the Botanic Gardens on a park bench above the rose garden.
“I sort of twisted around, but I didn’t quite get down on one knee, no. I kind of panicked a little bit at the last minute.”
Asked why he panicked, Hipkins said: “Oh nothing. It was just in the moment. It’s always a sort of a last-minute sort of thing.”
He said Toni was “very happy”. The ring had “three diamonds in a little nice row”.
The pair haven’t set a date for the wedding yet, but Hipkins said it would likely be after the election.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon congratulated Hipkins on the news.
“It’s fantastic news, and, I wish them both incredibly well.”
The relationship went public on election night in 2023, when Hipkins was thanking his parents and children for their support during the campaign.
“There is someone else I want to thank tonight, someone that most of you won’t know, and that is my partner, Toni,” he said.
The announcement initially caused some confusion, with many questioning whether it was Toni or Tony (Hipkins later clarified she was a woman).
He went on to say in October 2023 he had not meant to “trigger that set of rumours”.
“It’s Toni with an ‘i’,” he said with a chuckle.
“We’ve known each other for a long time, we met some time ago and our lives sort of went in different directions – there was a period where we didn’t have any contact with each other and then we got back in touch this year.”
He said he had talked with her before he revealed the relationship to the country.
Earlier that year, after becoming Prime Minister, Hipkins publicly revealed he had separated from the woman who was his wife at the time, with whom he had two children.
Hipkins said the two of them had decided about a year prior to “live separately” in a decision he described as being “in the best interest of our family”. He stated at the time she was “still my best friend” and the pair remained “incredibly close”.
The explanation, which he characterised as his “final comment on the matter”, formed part of his plea to New Zealanders to respect the privacy of his wife and two children.
“As a member of Parliament and as a public figure, I’ve worked really hard in the time that I’ve been in politics to keep my family out of the public limelight,” Hipkins said.
“I want [my children] to grow up with a typical, Kiwi-kid life. I want them to be able to make mistakes, I want them to be able to learn and to grow without five million people looking over their shoulder, so I intend to keep them out of the public limelight.
“I know that putting my name forward to be a minister, to be an MP, to be the Prime Minister, I make myself public property. I absolutely accept that, but my family aren’t and I ask that people do respect that.”