Tāmati Coffey with his newborn daughter Photo / Stuff
Labour MP Tāmati Coffey and his partner Tim Smith have welcomed their baby daughter five weeks early.
“And there she was. Made with love (and a little bit of science!) Mum and support crew doing well. Baby girl weighed in just under 3kgs and surprised us by being about 5 weeks early,” he shared in an Instagram post early on Thursday morning.
“Another acknowledgment of the mana of our wahine who choose to give couples, like me and my partner Tim, the gift of life.
“More and more couples are having kids this way, so the law still needs to be changed to streamline the process. As a lawmaker, those changes are my priority this year - now more than ever.”
Their first child, Tūtānekai Smith-Coffey, was born in 2019.
He was delivered via surrogate, and Coffey, in a post on Thursday, thanked their “surrogate Wonder Woman” for helping their whānau grow.
Coffey and Smith have been together for over a decade and had a civil union in 2011.
Coffey first became a household name in 2004, when he joined the What Now presenting team.
He worked in broadcasting for many years, before joining the Labour Party and was elected in 2017. He served a term as MP for Waiariki before losing the seat, and being re-elected via the list in 2020.