New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her longtime partner are engaged to be married.

Ms Ardern, 38, and television show host Clarke Gayford, 42, became engaged over the Easter weekend, a spokesman for her office confirmed on Friday.

They declined to comment further.

View photos New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and partner Clarke Gayford are engaged. Source: Getty Images More

The prime minister’s press secretary told the New Zealand Herald Ms Ardern had been sporting a ring since that weekend, but she had opted to wear it on her middle finger, not on the customary ring finger.

Ms Ardern was photographed on Friday wearing the band on her middle finger at a ceremony at Pike River Mine on the West Coast.

Asked earlier this year whether she would consider proposing to Gayford, Ms Ardern told the BBC she wanted to "put him through the pain and torture of having to agonise about that question himself".

View photos A diamond ring is seen on the middle finger of Ms Ardern's hand (right) as she embraces Anna Osborne, from the Family Reference Group, at a ceremony at Pike River. Source: Phil Walter/Getty Images More

View photos She also wore the ring on her middle finger as she visited the country to commemorate the victims of the Christchurch mosque terror attacks last month. Source: Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images More

Ms Ardern and Gayford met in 2012. Last year Ms Ardern gave birth to the couple’s first child, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, who turns one next month.

The New Zealand leader is the second world leader to give birth in office and the first elected leader to take maternity leave.

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