Justin, 51, and Sophie, a 48-year-old former radio and television personality who is an advocate for gender equality and mental health, have children ages 15, 14 and 9. The couple have released photos of their young family but had appeared together in public less often recently. A statement from the prime minister’s office said they have signed a legal separation agreement and that the family will vacation together next week.
“They remain a close family and Sophie and the Prime Minister are focused on raising their kids in a safe, loving and collaborative environment,” the statement said. “Both parents will be a constant presence in their children’s lives and Canadians can expect to often see the family together.”
Justin Trudeau met his future wife at a charity gala that they co-hosted in 2003. In his 2014 memoir “Common Ground,” which is dedicated to her, he wrote that they spent the evening flirting and realized that Sophie attended school with his late brother Michel, who died in a skiing accident in 1988.
Days later, Sophie sent him an email, but, he wrote that he was “too chicken to reply,” having “already sensed that this was no ordinary encounter and no ordinary woman, and even just meeting for coffee would likely escalate into the rest of my life.”
When the pair met by chance months later, they arranged a date. Dinner was followed by karaoke and an hours-long chat at Trudeau’s apartment. He wrote that he told her, “I’m 31 years old, so I’ve been waiting for you for 31 years,” and proposed they “skip the boyfriend/girlfriend part and go straight to engaged” since they’d spend their lives together.
The pair were married in Montreal in 2005 in a wedding that drew media coverage.
Unlike in the United States, the spouses of prime ministers here do not have official titles, formal responsibilities or large staffs — and when Sophie asked for more help after her husband’s election in 2015, she drew a backlash. Many spouses fly below the radar. But Justin and Sophie were no typical political power couple.
Michelle Obama once called Sophie her “soul mate” when the Trudeaus visited Washington in 2016. Shortly after he became prime minister, Justin and Sophie appeared together in the pages of Vogue, embracing and gazing into each other’s eyes in a glamorous photo shoot that drew comparisons to a Harlequin novel cover.
(They later poked fun at the photo shoot in a bit at the Press Gallery Dinner.)
The Vogue article celebrated Justin Trudeau as the “new young face of Canadian politics.”
Eight years later, he is no longer a fresh, new face. He is the longest-serving of the Group of Seven leaders. His majority government has been reduced to a minority, and lags in the polls behind the Conservatives. He announced a major shake-up of his cabinet last week, but some moves drew criticism, including from members of his own party.
The separation of a Canadian prime minister is unusual but not unprecedented: Justin Trudeau’s parents, Pierre and Margaret, separated in 1977 and divorced in 1984. While the relationships of political figures here are largely not the subject of breathless media coverage, their marriage — and its dissolution — drew widespread coverage and constant headlines.
In “Common Ground,” which was published before he swept to power in 2015, Justin Trudeau wrote that he was “shaped” by the breakup of his parents. Even though they made every effort to “minimize the pain and sense of loss,” he wrote that he retreated into the world of “Archie” comics as an escape.
“The demands imposed by the life my parents were leading affected them far more than the ordinary stress of parenthood,” he wrote.
The couple have spoken previously about the stresses that a life in the spotlight and in politics can have on a marriage. Justin Trudeau wrote in “Common Ground” that he sought her blessing before running for elected office because he knew from childhood “how tough politics can be on families and relationships,” but that it was a “different matter living it as a father and husband.”
