Picture the scene: you’ve booked a table at Montreal’s five-star French restaurant, Le Violon, at the height of the summer. Tucked away in the corner you see a celebrity pairing so leftfield that you wonder if they’ve put hallucinogens in the food. Is that really the pop star-cum-space-traveller Katy Perry tucking into beef cheek bordelaise with former Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau? As it turns out, yes it is.
Five months later, Perry and Trudeau have officially hard-launched. Posting a photo dump on Instagram featuring a loved-up selfie of the pair in Tokyo, Perry confirmed her romance with Canada’s former leader. Their relationship follows her split from fiancé Orlando Bloom in June, with whom she co-parents five-year-old daughter Daisy Dove. Trudeau separated from the mother of his three children and wife of 18 years, TV host Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, in 2023 – with her hinting online that work pressures impacted their marriage.
Trudeau isn’t quite as busy these days. Since resigning as PM in January after a series of ethics scandals – including violating conflict of interest rules by taking luxury trips to the Bahamas – caused his popularity to nosedive, he no longer has a formal role in Canada’s parliament. Instead, he’s turned to public speaking engagements – reportedly for £75,000 a pop – although he already has an estimated net worth of £72 million, thanks to his family’s businesses in gas stations and real estate.
He’s free, then, to conquer the entertainment industry, which a source claims is his next step. ‘Justin’s political career is over but he’s still an ambitious guy and it’s no secret he’s got his eyes on Hollywood. Being with Katy will make everything much easier, that’s just a fact.’
That doesn’t mean it’s all a publicity stunt – their romance is, in fact, very real. ‘Their attraction to each other is so intense, it’s very serious already,’ the source adds. ‘Katy loves the idea of being this international power couple, she can see the frenzy of interest they generate together. In her view, it would be silly not to find a way to capitalise on that. She says she finds it refreshing that Justin wants to create something with her and work together.’
But how did the pair even meet to begin with? ‘They’ve actually been floating in the same circles for years,’ the source explains. ‘They’ve always been friendly. Justin got in touch after news broke she was single and they started getting to know each other better over video chats while she was on tour.’
Perhaps they bonded over their shared propensity to field public backlash – whether it’s for Perry’s eight-minute space joyride or Trudeau skipping Government events to go surfing. Perry is currently embroiled in yet another PR controversy – winning a £1.35 million legal battle against disabled war veteran Carl Westcott, who sold his home to Perry and Bloom back in 2020.
Now, Perry and Trudeau seem steadfast in their endeavour to become a pop-meets-politics power couple, as evidenced by their recent lunch date with former Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and his wife Yuko in Tokyo. What next: brunch with the Obamas?
