Taking CARE of Jacinda
“Let’s have a cup of tea,” says the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. “I’ll put the kettle on.” These are not words I was expecting as we sat down to chat at her very humble electorate office in Morningside, Auckland. But then there’s a lot about our Prime Minister that is unexpected. Not least the fact that while she has led our country through one of the best Covid-19 responses in the world and continues to manage her team of 5 million day in and day out, she has also remained healthy and sane.
I’m sure I was not the only person during those first frightening weeks, as the pandemic swept the world a year ago, to wonder how she was getting through such a stressful time. Is she okay? Is she sleeping? Is she eating well?
When I share these thoughts with Jacinda she gives me one of her trademark smiles.
“It worries those around me more than it worries me, to be honest,” she says. “My mother and my sister worry about it more than I do. I’m one of those people who can’t relax if there’s other things I should be doing. I just don’t. So part of me feeling good about myself and the work I’m doing is feeling that I’m on top of things as much as I can be. It’s no good me trying to
