Australian ex-deputy prime minister welcomes baby with former staffer
Barnaby Joyce quit after details emerged of an affair with his former staffer.
LONDON -- The former deputy prime minister of Australia and his partner, Vikki Campion, have welcomed a baby boy.
Joyce quit his government post and position as leader of the National Party of Australia after it emerged he was having an affair with Campion, his former media adviser, and that she was expecting a baby.
After the affair, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull banned ministers from having sexual relationships with their staff.
Joyce has four daughters with his wife, Natalie.
After the baby, who has been named Sebastian, was born at Armidale Hospital, Joyce told Australian outlets “We are very happy and just taking it quietly.”
The affair was not Joyce’s only recent political crisis. In 2017, he was disqualified from running in a by-election when he was forced from his seat after it was revealed he held dual Australian-New Zealand citizenship.
After renouncing his secondary citizenship he was ruled eligible and won back his seat with more than 60 percent of the vote, according to Australian media outlets.
The dual citizenship crisis affected several members of Parliament, and resulted in nine seats lost, including Joyce’s.
On the news of his partner's pregnancy, Joyce told Australian media the paternity of Campion's then-unborn child was a "gray area" given his travel schedule and the estimated date of conception.
He added however that he was planning to bring up the child as his own regardless of who the father was.
Joyce later said that the child's paternity was "nobody else's business", and in comments to Fairfax Media on Friday said the arrival of the baby had "comprehensively removed any doubts about paternity on the basis of date".
