This close to the 40th anniversary of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, you'd be hard-pressed to find something that elicits more glee than the prospect of seeing Cher in real-time. That's unless you count the brilliant schadenfraude accompanying the epic tale of Australia's most famous baby daddy: the boot-avoiding, bonk ban-inspiring former Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce.

On Wednesday night, Joyce and his partner, Vikki Campion gave their first interview since their political infidelities went global; from the comfort of Joyce's "bachelor pad", to Fairfax Media.

Barnaby Joyce at home in Armidale. Credit:PETER HARDING

It was everything you'd expect from the sentient potato: He resented how questions of his personal life had shifted from "inquiry to malice". He loathed any inference that his love child would be "less worthy than other children", and abhorred the idea that said youth would grow up as a "public display". Talk of his secondary relationship while Campion worked with Senator Matt Canavan, was a case of "don't ask, don't tell", he said.

It's one thing to see a politician with a track record of opposing LGBTI rights for traditionalist reasons cop it after violating binding matrimony. But when said pollie makes a call for kindness – after subjecting countless Australian citizens to pain and suffering in the name of the same-sex marriage postal survey, and then refusing to vote on the subsequently laid-out bill at all – you wonder if the universe has a sense of irony.