The backlash against a newspaper column taking aim at the "cringey"-ness of First Man of New Zealand, Clarke Gayford, is not being bolstered by the Prime Minister, who says she hasn't read the article.
Jacinda Ardern was reserved in her assessment of an article published yesterday in the NZ Herald titled "Why does Clarke Gayford bug me?" written by business journalist Deborah Hill Cone.
"I didn't read it actually, no," Ms Ardern said this morning on TVNZ's Breakfast.
Mr Gayford is accused of "piggy-backing" off Ms Ardern's success in the opinion piece.
"I just could tell from the tone of it that it wasn't going to be especially nice."
But is Clarke Gayford "fair game" asked host Jack Tame?
"He is in the public eye, and I accept that he was in the public eye before we were a couple," Ms Ardern said.
"And obviously people choose to make comments like that, we just have to get on with it, we just have to keep doing our own jobs and not pay too much attention."
In the article, Hill Cone wrote: "So here's another theory. My Clarke snark might be an allergy to spouses who piggyback on their other half's success.
"You know those corporate wives, Betty Draper-style, who talk about how 'we' are running the company. There is something shameful about gratuitously getting status you didn't 'work for'."
It prompted this response from Gayford on Twitter yesterday:
"And welcome back to NZ - lol. Here's some other bottom feeding fish who I'd never met which feature as breaking news this weds 8pm on Prime TV, FISH OF THE DAY. - in the stunning COROMANDEL."
Ms Ardern said there was no Parliamentary media screening of any such public responses by Gayford.
"No, Clarke is his own person. That was the one about fish I think you were referring to. It was about fish, Jack," Ms Ardern said with a smile.
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