Simon & Natalie 'THE BEST IS YET TO COME!'

The former politician shares how dramatically their family life has changed

- Fleur Guthrie

In 2022, when Simon Bridges left behind the buzz of the Beehive, his wife Natalie, not-so-secretly wondered how it was going to go living together full-time again.

For most of their marriage, they'd lived apart - “Herein lies the secret to a happy relationship,” quips Simon. And at the time he withdrew from politics, Natalie even joked the next story the Weekly did might just be about their divorce. But today, as they relax side by side on a yellow velvet sofa in their inner-city Auckland apartment discussing their 20th wedding anniversary, it’s clear no lawyers have been called.

If anything, their marital bond has been strengthened – even if friends find it hard to tell because of the continual ribbing the good-humoured couple love to dish out to each other.

“It was humour that brought us together at uni – that sort of sarcastic, British silly humour,” shares English-born Natalie, 42. “We take the mickey out of each other and I think a lot of people think our marriage must be in trouble. But roasting each other, warts and all, is how we roll. And some people aren’t sure how to take that.”

Case in point: two of Natalie’s paintings are framed on the wall above them. They’re inspired by the Garden of Eden, but with no cloying observations, Simon reckons they look like an undercooked and overdone omelette with bits of capsicum thrown in.

Not taking things too seriously and being able to laugh together at life's absurdities is their modus operandi – especially while coordinating careers and raising their three children, Emlyn, 13, Harry, 11, and Jemima, seven – while moving from a countryside setting in Tauranga to an apartment in Auckland.

“Post-politics, it’s been a lot of fun,” says former National leader Simon, 48, who is now the Auckland Business Chamber CEO.