Annita van Iersel

Annita van Iersel
Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia
In office 20 December 1991 – 11 March 1996
Preceded by	Hazel Hawke
Succeeded by	Janette Howard
Personal details
Born	Anna Johanna Maria van Iersel (1948-10-05) 5 October 1948 Oisterwijk, Noord Brabant, Netherlands
Nationality	Australian
Spouse(s)	Paul Keating (1975–2008, divorced)
Children	Four
Alma mater	Australian National School of Arts
Occupation	Artist

Anna Johanna Maria "Annita" van Iersel (born 5 October 1948), known as Annita Keating from 1975 to 1998, is the Dutch-born former wife of Paul Keating, a former Prime Minister of Australia.

Biography

Born in Oisterwijk, Noord Brabant, Netherlands, she studied languages in Paris and London. She worked at KLM as a flight attendant. While working with Alitalia, she met Keating, then an aspiring young politician. They married on 17 January 1975. Her parents later joined her in Australia. While her husband was Prime Minister (from 1991 to 1996), their four children spent part of their teenage years at The Lodge, the Prime Minister's official residence in Canberra.

Van Iersel was well travelled, and this, along with her knowledge of five languages, proved a valuable diplomatic asset, especially in support of Sydney's bid for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. In 1998, Annita and Paul Keating separated. That same year she enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts course, majoring in photography, at the Australian National School of Arts in Darlinghurst, Sydney. She graduated in 2001. In March 2008 she was scheduled to exhibit a series of paintings—oils on Belgian linen—that she created in her studio on the Hawkesbury River. They did not formally divorce until 2008, though she had resumed her maiden name of van Iersel long before then.

References

Honorary titles
Preceded by Hazel Hawke	Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia 1991–1996	Succeeded by Janette Howard