Do Not Ask the Prime Minister About Her Sex Life During Interviews

On Sunday, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Arden was interviewed by Charles Wooley for 60 minutes Australia, and it left a lot of viewers feeling like they needed a shower afterwards.

According to the New York Times, Wooley’s interview was somewhat hyper-focused on the recent announcement that Arden is pregnant, making her the rare world leader who will also take maternity leave. Certainly something to ask about, but the tone of Wooley’s questioning left many people pretty skeeved out.

In the clip above, Wooley asks with a very moist mouth about how in the world Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford, were DTF during her stressful campaign, saying some “people” have been “counting back to the conception, as it were.” Ardern makes a grossed-out face and tries to answer in a way that doesn’t reveal anything Wooley could fantasize about.

“I should add that the election was done,” she says. “It was over. Not that we need to get into those details.”

Wooley seems to have a bit of a crush on Ardern, or to at least think that commenting on her looks is the most appropriate way to introduce a Prime Minster. Early in the segment, he says, “I’ve met a lot of prime ministers in my time, but none so young and not so many so smart, and never one so attractive.”

Hot-cha-cha!

The fact that Gayford cleans their home was also treated with significance. Wooley calls him the “First Bloke” and asks how they divide the household workload. He seems a bit shocked that the fella does laundry. Gayford, who hosts a fishing show in addition to getting the whites white, seemed to allude to the segment controversy on Twitter:

Diplomatically, Ardern says she was “taken aback, but not offended” by Wooley’s line of questioning. Wooley himself called the backlash “a bit Orwellian” on New Zealand radio. Not asking the most powerful person in the country about their sex life is apparently oppressive.