Lucy Turnbull wife of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

AS Malcolm Turnbull steps into the role of Australia’s 29th Prime Minister meet the woman who has been by his side for 35 years, his wife Lucy Turnbull.

Together the pair are a formidable force, Lucy a powerful figure in her own right.

The couple have enjoyed lasting love, their affection for each other seemingly as strong as when they first met in 1978.

ROLLING COVERAGE: Malcolm Turnbull takes over as Prime Minister

Malcolm describes being smitten with her from their first encounter and his love for Lucy is still clearly evident when he speaks about her and the larger-than-life-sized portrait of her which hangs in his office.

“She makes me laugh. We have always found each other amusing,” Malcolm told Australian Women’s Weekly in 2014.

“It is almost impossible to be sad in Lucy’s company. She is hardly ever down; she is as bouncy, as optimistic today as she was when I met her. Lucy is one of those few people who light up every room she enters.”

She was only 19 when she met Malcolm, then aged 23, while working for her father in his legal chambers. The pair quickly fell in love and were married in 1980.

“I was so in love and so worried I would lose her that I asked her to marry me soon after we met,” Malcolm said in the AWW interview.

“It is almost impossible to imagine, let alone remember, what it was like not to be together, so much so that I have a much clearer sense of “Lucy and me” than I do of “me.”

As the saying goes behind every great man is an even greater woman and this could be said of Lucy.

She followed her family into politics. Her great grandfather was Sir Thomas Hughes, the first Lord Mayor of Sydney, while Lucy became the first female Lord Mayor of Sydney in 2003.

She made her position on gender stereotypes very clear during this period.

“I’m no shrinking violet,” she said. “We are not in the era of Stepford Wives any more.”

Lucy, a lawyer, businesswoman, writer and philanthropist has served in city planning roles, as a company director, and as a board member of various non-profit organisations.

She was appointed an Officer of the order of Australia in 2011 for her service to the community, including fundraising for medical, social welfare and educational causes.

Educated at the leading Catholic Kincoppal-Rose Bay School Lucy went on to graduate from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Laws and also holds a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management of the University of New South Wales.

Lucy and Malcolm have two children together, Alex and Daisy. Daisy, a history teacher, is married to James Brown who served as an officer in the Australian Army before becoming a Military Fellow at the Lowy Institute, researching military issues and defence policy.

The couple who were married in 2010 have a son, Jack Alexander.

Alex Turnbull, a Harvard University graduate, works in Singapore at his own hedge fund, CIO at Keshik Capital.

He describes his role on his Linkedin profile as, ‘experienced investor in corporate securities and derivatives (equity, debt, volatility) both public and private. Experience in managing multi-asset portfolios’.

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