A LABOR OF LOVE

He’s been described as the leader Australia doesn’t know. As the ALP’s Anthony Albanese steadies his nerves for the campaign of his life, he invites The Weekly into his home to get to know him a little better – and to introduce us to Jodie Haydon, who will be standing right by his side.

- SAMANTHA TRENOWETH

Anthony Albanese was just a couple of blocks from home. It was a cool, cloudy January afternoon, the first working week of 2021, and he’d put in a solid day at his electorate office in Sydney’s inner west. Anthony and his humble but hardy Toyota turned west into a Marrickville side street. Neighbours were out walking their dogs, cicadas were buzzing, kids were chatting and laughing as they tumbled off the 423 bus. Then suddenly, everything stopped. Out of nowhere, a 17-year-old driver in a Range Rover veered onto the wrong side of the road and rammed Anthony’s car with force. The leader of the Federal Opposition was trapped in his vehicle, in shock and in pain from external and internal injuries.

It was a life-threatening smash.

“If this accident was 10 years ago, I wouldn’t be speaking to you here,” he’d later tell the media.

Someone called an ambulance. Someone else phoned Anthony’s office. His partner, Jodie Haydon, and his then-20-year-old son Nathan were alerted too.

Coming so close to death, Anthony says, gave him the impetus to reassess his life. It encouraged him to value his health and fitness a little more, as well as the challenges and opportunities that stood before him as leader of the party that has been his calling since he was a kid.

The accident gave Jodie’s life a jolt too. “I got the phone call,” she recalls, “and drove immediately to the scene. I saw the mess of a car before I saw him and thought, ‘He couldn’t survive this.’ It was very scary, and in that moment, you realise just how much you love this person – the fear of losing them. As I jumped in the ambulance and saw Anthony, I knew then the depth of my feelings towards him.”