A question to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about her relationship with long-term partner Clarke Gayford during a high-profile BBC interview has caused outrage.
On Tuesday (NZ Time), Ms Ardern appeared in a BBC interview with journalist Victoria Derbyshire, where the pair discussed a range of personal and professional topics, including Brexit, motherhood, and sexual harassment.
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However, one of Derbyshire's questions to Ms Ardern about her relationship with long-term partner and television presenter Gayford, has angered many online.
"Can you imagine asking your partner, Clarke Gayford, to marry you, or will you wait for him to ask you," Derbyshire asked the Prime Minister, who burst out in laughter.
When Ms Ardern said she wouldn't, Derbyshire said: "You're a feminist?"
"Absolutely, I'm a feminist," Ms Ardern replied before explaining she wanted Gayford to agonise about asking her and didn't want to let him "off the hook".
But the exchange is raising eyebrows with many, who are calling out Derbyshire's implication that because she wouldn't propose to Gayford, she wasn't a feminist.
"Instead of taking a jab at Jacinda Ardern's feminism, maybe Victoria Derbyshire should look at her sexist interview questions, including asking Ardern how she balances motherhood and running a country, and whether she feels guilty about it," tweeted one woman with eye roll emojis - a reference to another question from Derbyshire which attracted criticism.
"Seems Victoria Derbyshire is still asking ridiculous questions," said one user, to which another said: "She doesn't belong at the [BBC], that's taxpayer money she's using to live in the last century".
Newshub.
