The count-down is on for Australia’s version of the “royal wedding”, as prime minister Anthony Albanese prepares to say “I do”.

As the year draws to a close, so to does the time left for Albanese and his fiance Jodie Haydon to tie the knot, having previously confirmed they will wed before the end of the year.

While the couple have so far been tight-lipped on details, bets have been placed for the wedding to take place sometime after parliament breaks for the Christmas period at the end of November.

Albanese has been adamant that the wedding will be a private ceremony with no world leaders in attendance, having also previously told Brisbane radio station B105 that it was “not a political event”.

“It’s an event between myself and Jodie,” he said.

Speaking with The Australian Women’s Weekly, Haydon said the wedding would be “small and intimate”.

“(It will be) Possibly outdoors, in the second half of this year, with our family and loved ones,” she said.

“And you can be sure Toto (the couple’s pet cavoodle) will make an appearance.”

Although wedding venues have not been confirmed, some have tipped the prime minister’s residences at The Lodge in Canberra or Kirribilli House in Albanese’s home city of Sydney as possible locations.

The nuptials will be history making as the first marriage of an Australian prime minister while in office.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Haydon arrive for the 2025 Midwinter Ball at Parliament House, in Canberra. Credit: LUKAS COCH/AAPIMAGE

Albanese met Haydon at an event in Melbourne in 2020, bonding on their shared love of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, before quickly became an item.

They were engaged on Valentine’s Day in 2024 with Albanese proposing with a ring he helped to design on a balcony at the Lodge in Canberra.

“We look forward to our version of the royal wedding some time in the near future,” former opposition leader Peter Dutton said after the engagement was announced.

Fronting the media the day after the proposal, Albanese said he and Haydon “couldn’t be more happy”.

“It is such a joy to be able to share this news with people, and it’s wonderful that I’ve found a partner who I want to spend the rest of my life with,” he said.

The same year, the pair purchased a beachside cliff-top mansion in the Central Coast town of Copacabana for $4.3M.

Albanese had previously been married to Carmel Tebbutt, with the two meeting at a Young Labor event during the late 1980s.

They had one son, Nathan Albanese, born in 2000, and were married for 19 years before the two separated in January 2019.