Capping 5 Years of Speculation, Jacinda Ardern Gets Married

She steered New Zealand through volcanic eruptions, terrorist attacks and a pandemic, won her party a record-breaking majority and, at age 37, became the world’s youngest female head of government.

Yet from her earliest appearances on the world stage, fans and watchers of Jacinda Ardern, 43, the former New Zealand prime minister who announced her resignation almost exactly a year ago, have time and again returned to the same question: whether and when she and Clarke Gayford, 47, her television presenter fiancé, would tie the knot.

On Saturday, they finally got their answer, when the couple released official wedding portraits to the news media.

The ceremony, which took place at the Craggy Range vineyard, in New Zealand’s spectacular Hawke’s Bay, follows one canceled effort and more than five years of media speculation. In January 2019, a BBC interviewer made headlines when she pressed Ms. Ardern on whether she and Mr. Gayford would marry, or whether she would consider proposing to Mr. Gayford if he did not pop the question, prompting accusations of sexism. Since then similar questions have dogged Ms. Ardern.

The couple, who have been together for a decade and who have a 5-year-old daughter, Neve Ardern-Gayford, met in 2012. They announced their engagement in May 2019 — after a student journalist spotted a sparkly ring on Ms. Ardern’s finger and asked her office about it.

But the busy couple had not managed to marry before the coronavirus pandemic struck in early 2020, when New Zealand’s particularly stringent response, led by Ms. Ardern, resulted in the country closing its borders and imposing a strict lockdown.

Then a wedding planned for January 2022 was canceled just days before it was to take place, as Ms. Ardern