The prime minister of New Zealand was described as "attractive" and asked about the conception of her baby during a widely criticised interview on an Australian current affairs show.
60 Minutes journalist Charles Wooley has come under fire for his sexist line of questioning during the interview, in which he said he was "smitten" with Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's youngest leader since the 19th century, who is pregnant with her first child.
Wooley referenced Ardern's appearance during the show's introduction, which aired on Sunday night, saying he had "met a lot of prime ministers in [his] time," before adding: "But none so young, not too many so smart, and never one so attractive.” He also said that, like the rest of New Zealand, he was "smitten" with her.
With an unexpected - but very exciting - pregnancy, when @jacindaardern gives birth in June, she’ll become the first elected female western leader to have a child in office. #60Mins pic.twitter.com/mCB9rxeT81
— 60 Minutes Australia (@60Mins) February 25, 2018
Even more cringe-inducing were Wooley's questions about her pregnancy, which she announced in January, three months after taking office. (Ardern will become only the second female world leader to give birth while in power – Benazir Bhutto gave birth to her daughter while she was Pakistan's PM almost 30 years ago.)
“One really important political question that I want to ask you,” Wooley said to Ardern, who was accompanied by her partner, Clarke Gayford, during the interview. “And that is, what exactly is the date that the baby’s due?”
When Ardern responded with 17th June, Wooley said it was "interesting how many people have been counting back to the conception ... as it were." The pair both laughed awkwardly but Gayford looked particularly uncomfortable, blushing and asking, “Really?”
Wooley then, somewhat incongruously, referred to his own experience of conception: “Having produced six children it doesn’t amaze me that people can have children; why shouldn’t a child be conceived during an election campaign?”
To which Ardern replied while rolling her eyes: “The election was done. Not that we need to get into those details.”
Viewers around the world have watched the interview online in shock, with Wooley's questioning widely lambasted as "creepy", "cringeworthy", "sexist" and "pathetic" on social media, particularly by New Zealanders, who swooped to their PM's defence.
That's gross -,what a sexist and pathetic and distinctly uncomfortable piece of "journalism"
— OzHaras (@OzHaras) February 26, 2018
Dear New Zealand 🇳🇿, our best mate, you know how everyone has a creepy Uncle you need to avoid at Xmas parties? Sorry we got him to interview your PM. Please tell @jacindaardern we reckon it was gross.
— Belinda Barnet (@manjusrii) February 26, 2018
Love, Australia 🇦🇺 https://t.co/B9Bz3AQRsk
This is cringeworthy.
— Psyberus (@Psyberus) February 26, 2018
Of course, such interviews are common with male politicians when their partners are expecting a child, so it's all fair.
Oh wait. Such weird ass crap has never been inflicted on a male politician.
Wooley: I'm here today with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her domestic partner Clarke Gayford.
— Seano [-0-] (@SeanBradbery) February 26, 2018
*Turns to Gayford*
Wooley: So mate when did you knock her up?#60Minutes #OfShite
PM Jacinda Ardern should have walked from the so-called interview on 60mins. Not an interview. It was demeaning. PM give yourself permission to remove yourself from such abuse.
— Nedina Hohaia (@NedinaHohaia) February 25, 2018
Charles Woolley is bloody painful. Was interested in the Jacinda Ardern interview on 60 Minutes but he made it cringeworthy.
— Reg Roberts (@RugbyReg) February 25, 2018
Commenting on @jacindaardern's level of attractiveness, doesn't seem to be at all relevant to her ability as a nation's leader #60Mins
— Emily G (@emily_a_george) February 25, 2018
60 Minutes is outdated, superficial tosh.
— Rachel Baker (@RachelBkr) February 26, 2018
Expecting an in-depth, respectful interview of Jacinda Ardern was naive.
What actually happened was revolting.#auspol https://t.co/HWpOBTGjvX
Is Charles Wooley past it? Seems a very sexist interview, even creepy can't imagine him asking a male PM these questions. Get with the times. https://t.co/OXumHkTIVv
— Howard Williams (@howardw46) February 26, 2018
Ardern has since said she was unfazed by the interview and wasn't offended, adding that she was used to such lines of questioning from media. "You're assuming that I haven't been asked that question before by New Zealand media as well," she said in a press conference on Monday.
"At the time certainly... that question threw me a little bit, but it would be going a bit far to say I was somehow offended by it. I wasn't. It's one I think put under the heading of too much information," she continued.
"I haven't spent a lot of time analysing it. Maybe I've lost all of my sensitivity, maybe it's just that I'm from Morrinsville, I don't know, but I just wasn't particularly fazed by any of it," she added.
Gayford's take on the interview, meanwhile, was more in line with the reaction on social media. He alluded to the programme in a cryptic tweet containing picturesque photos of New Zealand: "A perfect place to escape for 60 Minutes or longer where required."
Hey NZ this is you.
— Clarke Gayford (@NZClarke) February 26, 2018
A perfect place to escape for 60 Minutes or longer where required.
Yesterday, Mokohinau Islands.
Bloody magic bro. pic.twitter.com/mtHenrrXNB
Wooley described the criticism of his interview as "Orwellian" and defended his questions by saying Australian audiences wouldn't have been interested in domestic policy questions. Speaking to New Zealand's Newstalk ZB, he said there were "so many different meanings" to the word attractive, "from good looking to gorgeous to likeable," but he admitted his wife had accused him of "gushing" over Ardern.
Referring to the uproar, he said: “It’s a bit Orwellian you know I think you got to be so careful with newspeak and thought crime and everything else, we suffer the same thing in Australia.”
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