“I still drive the kids to school”: PM's wife Jenny Morrison gives first solo interview

“Jen… I think you should go pick up the kids from school and just get down here.”

It was August 23 2018, and Jenny Morrison was folding laundry at home in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire when a news bulletin from Parliament House caught her eye. She made a quick call to her husband, and within hours was on her way to Canberra.

The next day, Scott Morrison emerged from a leadership ballot as Australia’s 30th Prime Minister. One month later, the couple and their two young daughters moved out of the family home and into Kirribilli House.

Though her family’s life has been flipped on its head, Australia’s ‘First Lady’ says she’s determined to maintain as much normalcy as she can.

When 9Honey visited Jenny at home, she’d just returned from the school run. Each day she drives Abbey, 11, and Lily, 9, to and from school in the Shire—an hour-long trip each way, which she says creates plenty of “good talking time.”

She still drops in to her favourite cafe, occasionally catches a movie at the cinema, and is trying to stand firm on the mobile phone and social media bans she’s imposed on her girls (“They’re constantly telling me, ‘It’s not the 1980s, Mum’”).

Other times, Jenny’s ‘new normal’ makes itself known—like the time she whipped up a pavlova for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at 1am, or her emergency stop to a dress shop en route to her husband’s swearing-in ceremony.

This week, Jenny invited 9Honey to Kirribilli House for what will be her only solo media appearance in the lead-up to the Federal Election.

Her wide-ranging conversation with Nine’s Digital Content Director, Helen McCabe—accompanied on the lounge by ‘First Dog’, Buddy—takes in the role faith plays in her life, the extent of her influence on policy decisions, and the side of the Prime Minister she believes the public doesn’t see.