The Prime Minister’s daughter, Jessica Rudd, and Tony Abbott’s youngest girls Frances and Bridget, have each become an important part of the election campaign, appearing by each of their fathers’ sides at events and speaking out in support of their respective “daggy” dads.
We know they love and support their father, but in this month’s issue of The Weekly the Abbott girls tell Editor-in-Chief Helen McCabe what sets them apart from their dad, revealing why they support gay marriage — one of the most controversial issues in modern politics and one their dad opposes.
“At the end of the day, we all have our own opinion,” 22-year-old Frances Abbott tells The Weekly.
“Bridge and I are both for gay marriage. We have not been brought up in a house where people have said it’s right or wrong. That’s just Dad’s belief.”
The girls reveal that their father Tony was supportive of his sister, Christine Forster, who left her husband for a woman five years ago, and 20-year-old Bridget describes her dad as “the most non-judgmental person in the world”.
“He is not for gay marriage, as such, but he is for love,” Frances says.
Also interviewed in this month’s Weekly, Kevin Rudd’s daughter Jessica fights back tears as she tells Helen McCabe how much her dad means to her.
“He’s vital to my life. We talk pretty much every day and I cannot imagine my life without him,” she says.
“I really thought that when he had heart surgery.”
The 30-year-old mum tells The Weekly how her dad’s 2011 operation to replace a leaky aortic valve that was inserted almost 20 years ago, changed her.
“There’s something about seeing your dad come out of surgery that makes you feel really vulnerable,” she says.
Read more of this story in the September issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
