Finland’s outgoing prime minister Sanna Marin has announced she and her husband are divorcing after 19 years together.
The leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), 37, and her husband Markus Raikkonen made the announcement on Instagram on Wednesday.
The couple share five-year-old daughter Emma Amalia Marin.
The joint statement read: “We have filed for divorce together. We are grateful for 19 years together and our beloved daughter.
“We are still best friends, kind to each other and loving parents. We will continue to spend time together as a family and with each other. We hope you respect our privacy.
“We will not comment further on the matter.”
The pair tied the knot in 2020. Mr Raikkonen is a former TPV Tampere footballer turned entrepreneur and investor. He also shared the statement, alongside a photo of the pair, to his Instagram account.
Ms Marin was the country’s youngest prime minister and the world’s youngest leader when, aged 34, she became elected in 2019.
But her hopes of a second term were dashed when she was defeated by the leader of Finland’s centre-right National Coalition Party, Petteri Orpo, in April.
Ms Marin has received international praise for her vocal support of Ukraine and her prominent role, along with President Sauli Niinistö, in advocating for Finland’s successful application to join Nato.
She has also faced criticism after a video surfaced of her partying with friends in the capital Helsinki last summer. She took a drugs test to prove she had not consumed any illegal substances.
She also apologised after a photo of two women pulling their shirts up during a party at the prime minister’s official residence was shared online. She said the photo from a party she had thrown in July was “not appropiate”.
The Finnish leader was then subject to a misconduct investigation, which concluded that there was “no reason to suspect the prime minister of illegal conduct in the minister’s official position or neglect of duty”.
Ms Marin had said she was “disappointed” the footage had been shared on social media, where supporters commended her for having fun alongside a stressful job while critics said she should have focused her efforts on a number of more pressing issues.
“I spent the evening with friends. Partied, pretty wild, yes. Danced and sang,” Ms Marin said after the occurrence in August.
Ms Marin told Reuters in January that she and her fellow young female ministers have been targeted with extensive hate speech for their gender and appearance while in office.
Former New Zeland Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Ms Marin rejected the claim of a male journalist that their meeting was only arranged because they are both young, female prime ministers.
The reporter, who can be heard but not seen in the clip, asked: “A lot of people will be wondering are you two meeting just because you’re similar in age and got a lot of common stuff there.”
Ms Ardern, 42, asked the unidentified man: “I wonder whether or not anyone ever asked Barack Obama and John Key if they met because they were of similar age.”
The two former leaders were born within days of each other in 1961.
