Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand
Prime Minister, who is in the United Kingdom for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral,
told the BBC that she had once asked the Queen for advice on how to be a leader
and a new mother. She said, the Queen’s advice to her was the “best and most
factual advice” she’d had.

Ardern is among hundreds of
world leaders who have gathered in London to ahead of the Queen’s funeral. On Sunday,
Jacinda Ardern was at BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg programme, where she was shown
footage of the moment she met the Queen for the first time, something that
happened when Ardern was pregnant.

The interviewer asked the New
Zealand PM about the conversation she had with the Queen. “One of the things on
my mind alongside being a new prime minister was being a prime minister and a
mum,” Ardern said. “And when you think about leaders who have been in that position…there’s
so few to look to.”

“So I said to her, ‘How did you
manage?’, and I remember she just said, ‘Well, you just get on with it.’ And
that was actually probably the best and most factual advice I could have.”

Jacinda Ardern became New
Zealand Prime Minister in 2017. She gave birth to her daughter Neve Te Aroha in
June 2018 and returned to work in early August that year. At the time, she had
to answer several questions within her domestic opposition about her ability to
continue to lead the country effectively.

For Ardern then, asking Queen
Elizabeth
for advice was only fair. For the Queen had given birth to Prince
Andrew and Prince Edward after she had taken the throne.

Jacinda Ardern is only the
second elected world leader to give birth while in office. The only other leader
was Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who served as the south Asian
nation’s leader from 1988 to 1990 and then 1993 to 1996.

In the interview, Ardern was
also asked about her recent comments where she said that she thought it was
likely that New Zealand would become a republic in her lifetime. “Even the
Queen herself has observed and acknowledged the evolution over time in our
relationships. So my observation is that there will continue to be and
evolution in our relationship. I don’t believe it will be quick or soon, but
over the course of my lifetime.”