Hipkins’ dirty laundry: the family story he hoped would never come out

A deeply personal post circulating on social media from the former wife of Chris Hipkins paints a picture that sits uneasily beside the carefully managed public image of the former Prime Minister

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The post, written by his ex-wife Jade Marie, lays out a series of deeply troubling allegations about how Hipkins treated his family behind closed doors. If even a fraction of it is accurate, the contrast between the rhetoric and the reality could not be starker.

Hipkins and the New Zealand Labour Party want the election campaign to revolve around health, housing and jobs. Ironically, those are precisely the areas his former partner claims he failed his own family.

According to her account, during a miscarriage she was left to drive herself home from hospital in a gown, still covered in blood, because Hipkins was too busy to come and bring her clothes. In another incident she describes suffering a placental abruption at 21 weeks and again being left alone while Hipkins sent his mother instead.

The claims do not stop there.

Her post describes a period in 2023 where she was unemployed and close to losing her home. She says she asked Hipkins for help buying fruit for their children’s school lunches. According to her, his response was that the children were her financial responsibility during her custody weeks and he refused to help. She says his father eventually stepped in with groceries after Hipkins told her to “fuck off”

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If true, it is a grim picture. A man who speaks endlessly about compassion and fairness apparently unwilling to help put apples in his own children’s lunchboxes.

There is also the matter of employment. Jade Marie claims she had to leave three jobs because of conflict of interest concerns related to Hipkins’ political position. Careers she enjoyed, sacrificed because of the complications created by his role.

Then comes the line that has already set social media buzzing. A reference to “the intern and the affair”.

Hipkins has long tried to keep his family life out of the public eye. That approach now looks less like a desire for privacy and more like a convenient way to avoid scrutiny. The rumours swirling in political circles about his conduct and about efforts to minimise child support payments will only intensify as more people read what his ex-partner has written.

For years Hipkins cultivated the image of the affable suburban dad. The kind of bloke who seemed relatable, steady and trustworthy. The kind of politician young people were told to look up to.

Those claims from his former partner tell a very different story.

It raises an obvious question. What would the reaction be if these allegations were directed at Christopher Luxon or David Seymour?

There would be wall-to-wall outrage from the political left. Editorials demanding accountability. Commentators asking whether such a man was fit to hold office. Calls for resignation would echo through Parliament and across the television studios.

Instead there has been a deafening silence.

The media that prides itself on holding power to account appears strangely uninterested when the accusations involve one of their preferred political figures.

Family values are not measured by speeches or campaign slogans. They are measured by how someone treats the people closest to them when nobody else is watching.

If Jade Marie’s account reflects the truth of those years, Hipkins did not merely fall short of that standard. He bulldozed straight through it.

New Zealanders deserve leaders who practise the decency they preach. On the allegations now circulating, Hipkins looks less like a role model and more like a cautionary tale.

There's a lot more to come.