The news of Canadian PM Justine Trudeau and wife Sophie separating has hogged the social media headlines in the last few days. But does one really empathise with them, or pass on?
The couple, who have three children and have been married for 18 years, were once seen to have had a fairy tale romance.
In the western ecosystem, where divorce is getting growingly common, political leaders have always tried to invest in projecting a happy marriage through suitable public posturing– to underscore stability and integrity.
Politicians tend to make their ‘perfect’ families part of their political campaigns, trotting them out in public, as if to impress upon the people that, ‘I have created a solid, stable family, and I can do that for my country.’
Trudeau is not the first Canadian prime minister to go through a separation in office though. In one of the first instances globally, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his wife, Margaret, parents of Justine, also went through a divorce during his final months in office in 1984, having initially separated in 1977.
In the United States, Ronald Reagan may have been the first divorced president in history (none have divorced while in office). And elsewhere, world leaders including Silvio Berlusconi in Italy and Vladimir Putin in Russia have divorced while in office.
While divorce may be a last resort for some, others believe a new marriage will balance it out. Nicolas Sarkozy of France divorced his second wife in 2007, five months after the start of his term as president, then married supermodel Carla Bruni four months later. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain finalised his divorce from Marina Wheeler in 2020. His marriage to his next wife, Carrie Symonds, in May 2021, made him the first prime minister of Britain to marry in office since Lord Liverpool in 1822.
Former New York mayor (and 2020 presidential candidate) Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, announced their separation last month.
In May, a month after losing a tight election, Sanna Marin, the prime minister of Finland, announced that she and her husband, Markus Raikkonen, had filed for divorce. Jacinda Ardern, who stepped down as prime minister of New Zealand last year, said she did so because “the role had taken a lot out of me” and she “finally” wanted to marry her longtime partner, Clarke Gayford, after years of delays.
Political seperations of high-profile couples reinforce the idea that money or privilege can’t buy happiness.
People tend to think: Even world leaders who have everything — power, money, fame, mansions paid for by our taxes — struggle with parenting, sex lives, disconnection and personality differences just like many ‘regular’ people do.”
Leaders separating or divorcing doesn’t create shock waves anymore because of the commonality it has grown into and second, also because leaders are no longer that idolised. There is a general corrosion of faith and even despair in modern governance and leadership. People sigh and shrug off, “Oh another leader who can’t help himself, how can he help us?”
Also Read: Pakistan Election Commission Disqualifies Imran Khan For 5 Years After Conviction
