Chris Hipkins has admitted he thought about quitting as Labour leader over the past 24 hours as he continues to face scrutiny from allegations by his former wife.
After his ex-wife Jade Paul published a since-deleted Facebook post on Sunday containing the allegations, which do not suggest he was engaging in any unlawful activity, Hipkins issued a statement saying he rejected the claims “entirely”.
The Labour Party leader appeared on the Ryan Bridge Today show on Herald NOW at 7.30am this morning.
When asked by Bridge whether he had considered his role as leader might no longer be “right for me”, Hipkins said: “Yes of course, but I am committed to doing my job”.
Hipkins told Bridge he doesn’t know why his ex-wife made the allegations.
He said he has received “lots of lovely messages” over the past 24 hours, after “a very challenging couple of days”.
“You go into a marriage wanting it to succeed and it didn’t, and so there’s a lot of heartbreak and a lot of anguish involved in that,” Hipkins said.
“Those are ultimately private matters though, and not ones that will ever be resolved through a public debate through the media.”
The Labour leader said the legal advice he was receiving over the allegations would be paid for by him as it relates to a personal matter.
Hipkins rejected that his ex-wife’s claims contradict Labour’s campaign values of “health, housing, jobs”.
“We’re going to be campaigning on jobs, health and homes. Those are very important things to the Labour Party, they’re important things to New Zealand. What’s not, I think, important to New Zealand are the private lives of other people.”
Hipkins said if people believed everything they saw on social media, “they’d have no faith in any other human being”.
“There is a lot on social media that is just wrong, that is vile, that is horrible. You know, the virtual vigilantes out there will spread all sorts of horrible things about all sorts of people. It’s not the way we should do things.
“If you’ve got questions about how I’m doing my job or the policies that Labour is campaigning on or any of those things, I am happy to stand up day in and day out, answer any questions on those and be subjected to rigorous scrutiny on my actions as a politician.
“But, you know, my private life, my relationship with my family, those are private matters and I don’t think I or any other politician should have to negotiate or litigate those through the media.”
He returned to New Zealand from Australia yesterday, where he was on holiday when Paul made her post, and held a press conference in which he teared up as he strenuously denied the allegations levelled at him.
On specific allegations, Hipkins repeatedly said he was not “going to litigate the details of any of those things publicly”, viewing it as not in “anyone’s best interest to do that”.
“I don’t intend to get into a backwards and forwards on those. I don’t think that would be the best thing for anybody involved, but particularly not for my children.”
Asked what his message was for New Zealanders aware of the allegations, Hipkins responded that he was “putting the best interests of my children first”.
“Marriage break-ups are very difficult. Everybody who’s been through that understands that marriage breakups are very difficult. There are always going to be disagreements. There are always going to be things that you regret when your relationships break up. A public forum like this is not the way to litigate those.”
Hipkins said he hadn’t sought any legal advice about Paul’s post, but had sought advice “about the potential publication of allegations against me that are untrue”.
He wasn’t sure what had prompted Paul to make the allegations at this specific time.
Hipkins has two children with Paul. The pair were together for years before marrying in 2020 in a ceremony at Premier House.
In a Facebook post on Monday night, Paul said she had “had enough”.
“So many women are hurt by high profile men who just do what they want with no consequences. We get told all of the time that if we speak out then our lives will be ruined, our kids will be impacted,” Paul said.
“We get labelled as ‘crazy’ or defamatory when we tell the truth. Today I have had enough.”
Immediately after Hipkins’ press conference, Paul told the Herald: “I 100% stand by everything I have said.”
Hipkins told RNZ’s Morning Report that thoughts about stepping away from politics had crossed his mind in the past two days.
Asked if the recent events had made him consider if he wanted to stay in politics, Hipkins said, “It would be untrue to say that those thoughts hadn’t crossed my mind in the last 48 hours, but everybody in their lives at some point goes through rough patches and you just have to keep getting out of bed every day. I love my job and I’m absolutely committed to continuing to do it.
“I think all politicians, when it comes to issues of their family, struggle when that becomes a subject of public debate. It is very, very unfair on the people who we love and care about. And you know, I’m worried about the impact of this on my family, on my children, on my partner, on my parents. And you know, you do pause and think about that. And we’ve had a lot of amazing support from people over the last sort of 48 hours or so.”
Hipkins said on TVNZ’s Breakfast this morning he has not sought legal advice on his ex-wife or her Facebook post.
“What I have sought advice about is the potential publication of things against me, allegations against me that are just untrue. There are now a lot of things swirling around there, everybody seems to be piling in on social media in particular.
“A lot of that is just absolute fabrication, it has just no basis in fact whatsoever.”
Asked if he was concerned the allegations were politically motivated, Hipkins said: “I hope they’re not”.
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