Margie Abbott

Margie Abbott
Margie Abbott in 2015
Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia
In office 18 September 2013 – 15 September 2015
Preceded by	Thérèse Rein
Succeeded by	Lucy Turnbull
Personal details
Born	Margaret Veronica Aitken (1958-02-01) 1 February 1958 (age 59) Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Political party	Liberal Party
Other political affiliations	Coalition New Zealand Labour Party (before 1988)
Spouse(s)	Tony Abbott (m. 1988)
Children	Louise (born 1989) Frances (born 1991) Bridget (born 1993)
Alma mater	Wellington Teachers College
Occupation	Child care centre operator
Profession	Carer
Known for	Spouse of the 28th Prime Minister of Australia
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Margaret Veronica "Margie" Abbott (born 1 February 1958) is the wife of former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. She runs a childcare centre in Sydney.

Margaret Veronica Aitken was born in Hutt Hospital,Lower Hutt, New Zealand to Max and Gail Aitken, and grew up in Wainuiomata. Both parents worked for the Post Office, Max as deputy chief postmaster of Wellington, and Gail as a typist. She has a brother, Greg, a former private investigator. The family has always been very sport-oriented; Max Aitken is a senior soccer administrator, and Margie played soccer and netball for a number of years. She is a Catholic, like her husband.

Max Aitken is a member of the New Zealand Labour Party and Gail is also a Labour voter. There were pictures of Labour leaders in the kitchen of the family home. Margie was also briefly a member of the Labour Party.

Margie Aitken attended Fernlea School and Wainuiomata College, where among other studies she took part in a pioneering Maori-language course. At the age of 16, she entered teachers college in Wellington, and after graduation taught primary school in Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata. She taught Maori both there and later in Australia. She later worked at a recruitment firm, and in 1983 followed her boss to Sydney, Australia when he sold the company. Her next career move was to the marketing department of Rothschild Australia, a merchant bank in Sydney.

In 1988 while at Rothschilds, she met Tony Abbott at a Sydney pub. He was then a journalist with The Bulletin. He proposed after taking her on the Kokoda Track. They married at Riverview Chapel on 24 September 1988, and have since had three daughters.

Abbott runs a community-based not-for-profit child care centre in St Ives, New South Wales Sydney, which employs 10 staff and cares for children from around 100 families. She continued as a director of the centre after her husband became prime minister.