Barnaby Joyce, 56, ties the knot with his former political adviser Vikki Campion, 38, in an outdoor bush bash-style wedding at his sprawling property – almost six years after their scandalous affair was exposed.
The happy couple hosted a pink and ivory-themed celebration the politician’s family ranch in Woolbrook, west of Walcha, in the NSW Northern Tablelands, on Sunday afternoon.
What was supposed to be a low-key barbecue for around a dozen guests swelled to a party for more than 80 of their closest friends, with a dance floor ordered in for a barn on the property.
The couple’s young sons Sebastian and Thomas, age five and four, could be seen outside the venue earlier that morning, ready for their roles as page boys.
Joyce himself jumped out of a Toyota Landcruiser at the property ahead of the ceremony, before guests – including former Nationals MP George Christensen – began to arrive in a convoy of four-wheel drives.
Hours later, the newlyweds beamed as they walked together, hand-in-hand, to greet their guests in his and hers Akubra hats.
A new, gold wedding band could be seen on Joyce’s hand.
Ms Campion wore a strapless cream dress with gold earrings and heeled black cowboy-style boots as she walked alongside her new husband with a glass of champagne post-ceremony, smiling widely at her guests.
Vehicles were parked around a white aisle separating rows of white chairs. A single portable toilet could be seen on the trailer of one 4WD.
While the nuptials were a family affair, not all members of the Joyce clan were expected to attend.
It is not clear which one of his four daughters, Julia, Caroline, Odette and Bridgette, agreed to join the festivities, but it is unlikely to be Odette, who once posted a picture of her mum and siblings on Instagram with the caption: ‘The real Joyce family #whosbarnaby’.
On Saturday night, the evening before her father’s wedding, she used Instagram to share a photo of a friend’s birthday celebration in the Sydney suburb of Manly – which is about five hours south of Walcha.
The girls’ mother, Natalie Joyce, was said to have been blindsided by her then husband’s affair, which news of emerged in February 2018 when Ms Campion was two months away from giving birth to Sebastian.
When the couple announced their engagement in January 2022, Mr Joyce said his family’s reaction was as ‘one would have expected’ and not everyone was pleased.
‘Some are happy and some are understandably not as happy,’ Mr Joyce said at the time.
He proposed with a parti sapphire ring, a stone popular in his northern NSW electorate of New England.
Ms Campion’s father Peter previously told Daily Mail Australia the wedding was expected to be ‘very much Barnaby getting back to his country roots’.
He said along with the country-style dancing predicted in one report, he expected there would also be more conservative ‘staid waltzing’, but ‘I’m not much of a dancer, and I’ve had a knee reconstruction, so I won’t be boot scooting’.
Mr Campion said now thought of Joyce as ‘a good bloke’ and ‘one of the better ones’ among Canberra politicians.
The renowned conservative said it was media misreporting about his daughter relationship that had initially set him against Joyce, but his daughter had assured him her relationship with the MP had begun months after his marriage had ended.
Mr Campion will give a speech as father of the bride and may be dressed in, he says, ‘steel-capped boots and a “Make Australia Great Again” cap’.
Asked what he will say about his daughter, he said: ‘I’m there to ruffle feathers. some hard truths about modern society dominated by the lunatic left.
‘Well, I’ve only got 20 minutes. It’s a rare opportunity to drop some truth bombs.’
