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New Zealand’s ex-PM Jacinda Ardern given top royal honour for service during shooting and pandemic
- Ardern was made a Dame Grand Companion, the second-highest honour in New Zealand, as part of King Charles’ Birthday Honours
- Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who succeeded Ardern, said she was being recognised for her service during ‘some of the greatest challenges our country has faced’
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Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday received one of New Zealand’s highest honours for her service leading the country through a mass shooting and coronavirus pandemic.
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Ardern was made a Dame Grand Companion, the second-highest honour in New Zealand, as part of King Charles’ Birthday Honours. It means people will now call her Dame Jacinda. Royal honorees are typically chosen twice a year in New Zealand by the prime minister and signed off by Charles, the British king who is also recognised as New Zealand’s king.
Ardern was just 37 when she became prime minister in 2017, and was seen as a global icon of the left.
She shocked New Zealanders in January when she said she was stepping down as leader after more than five years because she no longer had “enough in the tank” to do it justice.
She was facing mounting political pressures at home, including for her handling of Covid-19, which was initially widely lauded but later criticised by those opposed to mandates and rules.
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Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who succeeded Ardern, said she was being recognised for her service during “some of the greatest challenges our country has faced in modern times.”
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