Jacinda Ardern reveals late Queen Elizabeth's stoic parenting advice
1 June 2025, 10:57 | Updated: 2 June 2025, 08:23
The former Prime Minister of New Zealand has revealed advice given to her by Queen Elizabeth II on raising children in the public eye.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Writing in her new memoir, A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir by Jacinda Ardern, the former Prime Minister described a private meeting with Queen Elizabeth II in London in April 2018.
The 44-year-old, who had been elected as New Zealand's Prime Minister in 2017, attended the Queen's Dinner in Buckingham Palace on the first evening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Ardern, who was seven months pregnant at the time, was offered a 20-minute private meeting in the Blue Drawing Room with the monarch, who was then 91 years old.
"She had, of course, raised children in the public eye," Ardern wrote, "so in our private meeting I asked if she had any advice."
"“You just get on with it,” she said simply."
Read More: King Charles offered Rolls-Royce and other luxury gifts by Bahrain
Ardern wrote: "She sounded so matter of fact, just as my grandma Margaret might have."
The former Prime Minister had brought a gift of a framed image of the Queen during a royal tour to New Zealand in 1953, in which she looked relaxed, laughing.
She wrote in her memoir that she squeezed this package and thought, "You just get on with it. Of course you do."
Jacinda Ardern and Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, two-time Prime Minister of Pakistan, are the only two elected heads of government to have given birth in office.
Ardern gave birth to her daughter Neve Te Aroha on June 21, 2018, returning to work as Prime Minister in early autumn.
Ardern reflected on her meeting with the late Queen in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg ahead of the Queen's funeral.
She said: "One of the things on my mind alongside being a new prime minister was being a prime minister and a mum."
"And when you think about leaders who have been in that position, there were so few to look to."
"So I said to her, "How did you manage?", and I remember she just said, "Well, you just get on with it". And that was actually probably the best and most factual advice I could have."
Queen Elizabeth II gave birth to Prince Andrew and Prince Edward after she took to the throne. Her parenting style was described by royal expert Robert Hardman as "devoted", albeit "old-fashioned."
Ardern's memoir will be published on June 3.
