Jacinda Ardern Advocates for Greater Compassion Among Global Leaders

It can be easy to overlook that Jacinda Ardern once served as New Zealand’s prime minister.

Spotted standing in line at a café in Cambridge, Massachusetts, dressed in a suit by New Zealand designer Juliette Hogan paired with sneakers and gold hoop earrings, Ardern offers a warm smile and invites people to call her simply “Jacinda.” When the cashier asks if she might be someone familiar from television, mistakenly suggesting Australian actress Toni Collette, she graciously lets the confusion pass without correction.

Without any security detail, Ardern blends into the crowd as she orders a cappuccino.

The café lies just a short walk from Harvard University, where Ardern now holds three fellowships following her voluntary resignation as prime minister in 2023. Since stepping down, she married her longtime partner, Clarke Gayford, and moved her family temporarily to Massachusetts.

The day before our meeting, the campus buzzed with graduation activities—tents were set up, folding chairs stacked, and students carried boxes as they celebrated the end of the academic year. This milestone came amid ongoing tensions at the university involving a legal dispute linked to allegations of antisemitism, which have put federal funding and the status of international students at risk.

Against this charged backdrop, Ardern has released her memoir, "A Different Kind of Power," which argues that empathy and kindness are essential leadership qualities capable of addressing global challenges. This theme also underpins one of her fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School. How well this message will resonate during such a polarized era remains uncertain.

Ardern has expressed appreciation for the relative anonymity her life in the United States affords. This change has allowed her to spend more quality time with her six-year-old daughter, who now possesses a deeper understanding of her mother’s former role as prime minister, though she does not dwell on it.