Chris Hipkins says his partner Toni is getting used to her newfound stardom after the Labour leader name-checked her during his concession speech on Saturday night.
During the speech, Hipkins thanked his parents and children for their support and sacrifice during the campaign but also revealed details about his new partner.
"There is someone else special that I want to thank tonight, someone that most of you won't know, and that is my partner Toni," Hipkins said as part of his concession speech.
"Being Prime Minister is not the only special thing that has happened for me this year and I want to thank you for being with me every step of the way over the last few months as we have gone through this campaign."
Hipkins told AM on Wednesday Toni is getting used to the spotlight.
"A little bit of an adjustment there and we'll work through that together, but it just wouldn't have felt right to thank my family and not thank the person who has been just such an amazing support for me over the last couple of weeks," he said.
Hipkins told AM co-host Laura Tupou the campaign was tough for him and the entire Labour team and he was thankful to have her supporting him.
"To have her in my corner supporting me through that was a pretty amazing thing and I did want to make sure I thanked her publicly and it has meant now she's been subject to a lot of questions in the last little while and so I'll support her through that as she has supported me," Hipkins said.
It comes after Hipkins joked about confusion over the gender of his partner Toni on election night.
His use of the non-gendered word "partner" and the name itself led to people raising questions with Newshub on Saturday night about the mystery person, which election coverage hosts Samantha Hayes and Ryan Bridge addressed on air shortly after Hipkins' speech.
"Hey, one thing we should clarify as we've had a lot of questions coming in, when [Hipkins] in his speech said thank you to his partner Toni - because it's a name that could either be a man or a woman - people were confused, but we've had confirmation that he was talking about a woman," said Hayes.
"It's a woman," added Bridge. "For a moment there I was wondering, is he...?"
Hipkins cleared it all up on Tuesday and added it isn't easy starting a new relationship during an election campaign.
"Toni is a very special woman, just to be clear – it's Toni with an I. I Didn't quite mean to trigger that set of rumours on Saturday night," Hipkins joked.
"We've known each other for a long time but our lives sort of went in different directions... but we got back in touch this year."
