Considering his father dated Barbra Streisand and his mother socialized with the legendary rock band, it may not come as a shock to see former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau romantically linked with American singer Katy Perry.
However it nonetheless raises eyebrows. “This was NOT on my 2025 bingo card,” commented an entertainment news site in July, when the couple were first spotted together in Montreal. A popular magazine subsequently called them “2025’s most surprising couple.”
Over the weekend, Trudeau, 53, and Perry were seen leaving a nightspot in Paris on Perry’s 41st birthday. They were holding hands. Neither has made a statement, but the image is interpreted as the couple acknowledging they are indeed an item.
They join a remarkably short list of known relationships between politicians and musicians, which includes Justin’s father, Pierre, and Streisand, as well as a past politician with a pop star.
Politician-actor relationships and marriages are frequent: examples include Rita Hayworth and a then-UN ambassador; John F Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe; Elizabeth Taylor and a US senator; and Pierre Trudeau – briefly – with Kim Cattrall.
Every time, attention has been wide and strong, which irritates some who believe it is mere celebrity gossip and best ignored.
But it is OK to be curious and to care, says a humorist who hosts a podcast on celebrity relationships.
“No matter how well-known you are, there are certain beats to life and a relationship that are identical,” she said. “If you’re famous, they’re probably more sped-up or they’re more amplified.”
People cannot go around questioning friends or strangers about the dynamics of relationships – but they can learn about celebrities and politicians.
“We all might get together with somebody and we might move things along too quickly, or we become infatuated with the notion of the person, not the actual person, or they’re right for that moment in your life but then you evolve so then it fails any more.
“When you look at celebrity couples, when you can really drill into the dynamics of what happened, you can see it is ordinary existence.”
Celebrity relationships could shed light on all sorts of issues, said the writer, whether insecurities, careers before children – or just when it’s time to move on.
“The most human part of a famous person is their private life,” she said, whose podcast explores celebrity breakups.
Neither Perry nor Trudeau, observers note, is at the top of their professional lives or lives.
Perry’s newest album, released four years after the previous one, was widely panned – although not maybe as terrible as claimed by some. Yes, it’s “common-or-garden mediocre pop,” stated a critic, “but it’s certainly some way less than total catastrophe.”
The singer was also ridiculed for participating in an women-only space mission.
In July, Perry and British actor Orlando Bloom announced they were splitting, six years after getting engaged. “She is fighting for relevancy,” said the writer. As is, debatably, Trudeau.
Voted in as Canada’s prime minister in 2015, Trudeau announced in January that he was resigning, effectively forced out by his own party.
In 2023, Trudeau and his wife, Sophie, disclosed they were parting ways after 18 years of marriage, following what they said were “meaningful and challenging conversations.”
Back in charge of his own online presence, one of Trudeau’s first Instagram posts was a picture of him browsing for kitchen supplies at a homewares outlet – “Gotta love a Monday morning,” he wrote, eliciting discussion about the divorced dad aura he was giving off.
The Trudeau-Perry story has, inevitably, led to people looking back on Trudeau Sr and his relationship with Streisand, and what a romance it could have become.
Pierre Trudeau was one of Canada’s most successful, charismatic and non-traditional politicians. He drove a motorcycle, liked swimming nude and sliding down banisters, and wore casual footwear in the legislature.
Barbra Streisand was an icon.
“Wow,” she wrote in her autobiography about their first meeting. “I was fascinated by that dichotomy … the serious politician and the bohemian artist. Those two don’t usually go together.”
Streisand, whose marriage with actor Elliott Gould was on the rocks, was captivated by this “very dapper, intelligent, intense” man, a “kind of combination of Albert Einstein and Napoleon (only taller)”.
They became an item in 1969. “I remember one afternoon … I was lying with my head on his lap, while he was reading official papers and I was reading a script. I thought to myself, This is bliss.”
The one thing she was not looking for, however, was a new husband and having more children, both of which she suspected Trudeau wanted.
What lies ahead for Trudeau Jr and Perry remains to be seen. They are relatively young but beyond their prime, argues the writer, both perhaps asking themselves what’s next. Might Trudeau and Perry be the next George and Amal? The next Harry and Meghan?
“There is a podcast coming, is what I’m saying,” she said. “A podcast and a foundation. I’m predicting it.”
