Peter Dutton has given rare insight into his personal life, sharing details of his first marriage which resulted in the birth of his first child and how his “really strong relationship” with his now-wife Kirilly.
In a wide-ranging interview with Peta Credlin on Sky News, the Opposition Leader said he had met Kirilly while his first wife was pregnant with his daughter Rebecca, describing it as a “tough issue” to broach at the beginning of their relationship.
“It was a tough issue at the time because I’d been married when I was about 23 for about six months,” he said.
“(I) picked up my then wife from a night shift and she said, I don’t love you anymore.”
Elaborating on the relationship breakdown with his first wife, Mr Dutton said: “It was sort of pretty shocking at the time, but we just got married too young.”
“I was working too hard and didn’t have enough time for the relationship, and it was just one of those things,” he said.
“I was engaged to Bex, to my daughter’s mum, and Rebecca was conceived in that relationship, and that relationship broke up (and) Kirrily and I met after that.”
Speaking about his wife Kirilly, who he met through friends, Mr Dutton said he felt “fortunate” the pair have a “really strong relationship”.
“I think we hit it off pretty quickly. And there was, even to this day, just an instinctive understanding of each other and allowing ourselves of our respective space,” he told Credlin in the hour-long interview.
“One of the most important things for me has been that in my absence – just given that you’re away a lot, obviously, with this job – that the kids have been raised in exactly the same way as I would have wanted them raised had I been there.
“She’s never complained about that and the sacrifice she’s had to make sure her own career.”
The interview gives a rare personal insight into the Liberal leader on the cusp of a tight federal election, which could – if polls continue in his favour – end with him as Prime Minister.
Mr Dutton also spoke about the pathways taken by his three adult children.
He said Rebecca, now 22, works in childcare, and credited his middle child Harry, 20, who’s completing his first year as an apprentice carpenter, as having an “entrepreneurial spirit” and aspirations of being a “builder slash developer”.
His youngest, Tom, 19, is currently on a two-year gap after school, with Mr Dutton believing he’ll work in agriculture.
“The kids have always been treated equally by me, by Kirilly,” he said.
“They’re all different personalities, but the three kids are incredibly close and, and for me, that’s a beautiful thing to watch them together.”
Mr Dutton also spoke about the emotional toll of his job on his family, and revealed his children and wife had been subjected to death threats.
Although personal security teams are usually reserved for just the Prime Minister, Mr Dutton has had a 24/7 detail since his stint as immigration and border protection minister in 2014.
“There was one occasion the kids had had a death threat, and at school, the police were there with them,” he said.
“It was Harry or Tom said: ‘Dad it’s so embarrassing, the police were at school’. I said: ‘Mate no one will know who they are,’ and one of them said: ‘Dad, they’re the only people walking around with bum bags. Everyone knows who they are’.
“Fortunately, that didn’t last for long. Again, you know, Kirilly has had death threats and all sorts of things which go with this job.”
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