Tim Mathieson | |
---|---|
Partner of the Prime Minister of Australia | |
In role 24 June 2010 – 27 June 2013 | |
Preceded by | Thérèse Rein |
Succeeded by | Thérèse Rein |
Personal details | |
Born | Timothy Raymond Mathieson 1957 (age 66–67) Shepparton, Victoria, Australia |
Spouse |
Diane Stark
(
m. 1987;
div. 2003) |
Domestic partner(s) |
Julia Gillard (2006–2021) |
Children | 3 |
Education | Shepparton High School [1] |
Occupation | Hairdresser |
Timothy Raymond Mathieson (born 1957) is an Australian hairdresser and the former domestic partner of Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister of Australia from 2010-2013. [1] Mathieson entered the public spotlight when he became Gillard's partner in 2006 while she was deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party. [2] [3] His relationship with Gillard ended in 2021. [4]
Mathieson was born and raised in Shepparton, Victoria. After a hairdressing apprenticeship in suburban Melbourne, he first operated a Shepparton hair salon, then another on the Gold Coast, Queensland. [5] For much of the 1990s, Mathieson lived and worked in San Francisco in the United States. [6]
Mathieson returned to Australia in 2004, worked for one year as a hairdresser at Heading Out salon in Melbourne, where he met long-standing salon client, politician Julia Gillard. They began dating in March 2006. [1] With financial support from his father and brother, Mathieson established Tim Mathieson Hair in Shepparton but moved back to Melbourne later in 2006 [7] as a sales representative for a hair products company. [6] From January to March 2010, Mathieson focused on the sale of high-rise apartments in Melbourne to international buyers on behalf of a local real estate agency. [3] [8]
Once Gillard became prime minister in June 2010, Mathieson supported her by assuming an unpaid behind-the-scenes role. [9]
In November 2008, Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon appointed Mathieson as one of the government's unpaid men's health ambassadors. [2] He later became an ambassador for Kidney Health Australia, [10] a patron of the Australian Men's Shed Association [11] and involved with the Indigenous Diabetes Association in Alice Springs [3] and Beyond Blue mental health group. [5] In December 2010, Mathieson was appointed patron of the National Portrait Gallery. [12]
In January 2013, Mathieson attracted media attention for a joke he made while advocating for prostate examinations, advising men to seek out "a small Asian female doctor" when receiving a rectal prostate exam. After commentators considered his remark inappropriate and in poor taste, he apologised. [13]
While in his late teens during the 1970s, Mathieson fathered a daughter with his girlfriend Pam Child. [14] [15] In 1987, Mathieson married Diane Stark; they had a son and a daughter together [16] and divorced in 2003. [17] In March 2006, Mathieson started dating Julia Gillard. [1] When asked in 2010 about formal marriage to Gillard, he said that they had not discussed it at that stage. [18] Mathieson's relationship with Gillard ended in 2021. [19]
In July 2023, Mathieson pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual assault after non-consensually sucking the nipple of a sleeping woman and "latching onto her breast when she tried to fend him off" in March 2022. [20] [21] Mathieson was convicted in October 2023 and fined $7000. [22]