Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard has confirmed her split from partner of 15 years, Tim Mathieson.

The former leader – who is currently the Chair of Beyond Blue and the inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership – told the Adelaide Advertiser that the pair had parted ways over a year ago.

Gillard met Mathieson at the hair salon where he worked in 2004, but they did not start dating until two years later.

“Every four or five weeks on a Sunday morning, I used to go in and work my way through the newspapers as my hair was done,” Gillard wrote in her 2014 autobiography My Story.

“Tim and I got talking about politics: initially he thought I was a state member of parliament. We had later run into each other on a tram and had a chat.”

In 2006, the pair became ‘official’ after catching up for lunch during the “politically quiet time of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games”.

During Gillard’s three years as Prime Minister, she and Mathieson – who was dubbed Australia’s “First Bloke” – made history by being the first unmarried couple to live at The Lodge.

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Gillard currently splits her time between Adelaide and the UK, where she chairs the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at the prestigious King’s College.