Simon's party of five I'VE FOUND MY TRUE HAPPINESS

The ousted leader opens up about love, family, politics and how his enemies got too crue!

- Marilynn McLachlan

It’s been just over a year since he lost his role as leader of the National Party, but at his home in Tauranga, surrounded by his bubbly three children, wife Natalie, and their affectionate dog Jasper, Simon Bridges has a lot to smile about.

“It’s undeniable that when you work 100 hours per week, it takes its toll, it ages you,” he says. “But as I sit here, I feel like a box of birds, I really do.”

The 44-year-old is relishing the extra time he now has to spend with his family and the opportunity to be more involved in household tasks.

“We’re just doing normal things and I’m doing a lot of firsts with my kids,” Simon says, speaking about Emlyn, nine, Harry, seven, and Jemima, three. “I’m even doing a hunting trip with the boys in October. It’s not something I would normally get out of bed to do, but Emlyn is into it. I’ve also had a newfound – I won’t say skill because that’s going too far – but the enjoyment of cooking.”

“Having that extra pair of hands is great because I don’t have any support and like a lot of women, I want to be a hands-on mum and have a career,” says Natalie, a former journalist and founder of the successful agency Blink PR.

“We all know it, we all say it, but what happened has been a great reminder that family is the most important thing in my life,” Simon tells the Weekly.

The former Crown prosecutor’s leadership of the National Party was contested by Todd Muller following New Zealand’s level 4 lockdown last year, after a political poll result that saw the party’s support plummet.