Vikki Campion’s dad – who vowed to ‘burn Barnaby Joyce alive’ after he learned of their affair and love child – reveals the touching role he will perform at their wedding – and spills on his daughter’s ‘beautiful’ dress
EXCLUSIVE
The father of Vikki Campion – who once vowed to burn Barnaby Joyce alive after she became pregnant with his child – will give her away to the former deputy prime minister at their wedding next month.
Peter Campion has spotted daughter Vikki in the ‘sensational’ ivory dress she will wear to marry Barnaby in a barn on a remote property in November and says she looks ‘beautiful’ – and as ‘hot’ as her own mother.
Ms Campion and Mr Joyce’s pink and ivory wedding will take place at the politician’s family estate, with 80 guests and the couple’s young sons, Sebastian and Thomas, acting as page boys, Daily Mail Australia can reveal .
At the November 12 bush bash wedding in a rural valley west of Walcha in the NSW Northern Tablelands, the male attendees will wear a semi-formal country outfit of blue jackets and tan trousers with pink ties and RM Williams boots.
The bride will not wear a veil and is expected to carry pink roses, while the groom may even wear his famous hat to the altar.
“I’ve seen her in the dress, she looks sensational,” Mr Campion said, adding that he hoped Barnaby would wear a hat from his collection of signature Akubras because “you wouldn’t like to see that head uncovered.” .
Ms Campion, 38, who announced her engagement to Mr Joyce in January 2022, will have their two sons, Sebastian and Thomas, now aged five and four, dressed up for their formal contribution to the ceremony.
The original barbecue for a dozen guests has now been increased to 80 and counting, and a dance floor has been ordered for a shed on the property.
Vikki Campion will marry Barnaby Joyce in November in a “sensational ivory dress” in a barn on a remote Joyce family estate, attended by the couple’s two young sons, Sebastian and Thomas.
Vikki Campion and Barnaby Joyce will marry their sons in a secluded venue on November 12, with Sebastian and Thomas likely to be ring bearers and Vikki in a ‘sensational’ ivory dress
“Barnaby is a politician, he can’t help it,” Mr Campion said, “he’s going (Vikki) crazy. I don’t know how she handles him. Sometimes I feel like shaking him until his teeth rattle.’
Mr Campion’s initial fierce opposition to his eldest child’s romance with Barnaby has softened. He once wanted to ‘take a shotgun’ to Barnaby, but is now more likely to shoot down pushy drones trying to take pictures of his daughter’s big day from the air.
The bride’s father and his wife Tracey have five children. She will travel from their home in Atherton Tablelands in north Queensland with two of their sons, Michael and Curtis.
Mr Campion said he was surprised to hear that one of Mr Joyce’s four daughters from his first marriage was also present because “the last we heard there were no daughters (on the way)”.
It’s not clear which of Joyce’s four girls Julia, Caroline, Odette and Bridgette are expected to be at the wedding, but it’s unlikely it will be Odette, who once posted a photo of her mother and siblings on Instagram with the caption: ‘The real Joyce family #whosbarnaby’
Mr Campion added that the happy couple had designated the wedding as a ‘no-go zone’ because it would be sufficient for guests to pay for travel and accommodation.
Mr Campion said the couple also ‘won’t have a honeymoon – they don’t have time’. After the wedding, it will be back to business between Mr Joyce’s electorate in New England and Parliament House in Canberra.
“The children go to the nursery at Parliament House, along with the cleaners’ children,” Campion said.
Vikki’s dad Peter Campion (above) said he ‘saw red and wanted to barbecue’ Barnaby Joyce, but now the two are friends and he will give his daughter away to the ex-deputy Prime Minister
Vikki Campion will marry Barnaby Joyce in November, five years after the so-called ‘scandal’ over their relationship and first pregnancy, which the bride-to-be’s father said was.
While Peter and Tracey Campion will stay in a motel in Walcha on the night of the wedding, many attendees will take up the offer to arrive in utes or 4WDs, party until the early hours and sleep in swags or bedding provided take them with you.
The wedding is expected to be ‘Barnaby returning to his country roots’ and Mr Campion said he was looking forward to walking his daughter down the aisle and giving her away.
He said that in addition to the country dancing predicted in a report, he also expected there to be more conservative “sedate waltzing,” but “I’m not that good of a dancer and I’ve had a knee reconstruction so I won . ‘no boat scootering’.
Mr Campion explained to Daily Mail Australia that he now regarded Mr Joyce as “a good guy” and “one of the better” among politicians in Canberra.
The well-known Conservative said it was misreporting in the media about his daughter relationship that initially turned him against Barnaby, but Vikki had assured him her relationship with the MP began months after Mr Joyce’s marriage ended.
Joyce was married to his first wife Natalie when news broke in early 2018 that he was expecting a son with Vikki, his former political adviser.
Peter Campion was surprised that one of Barnaby’s adult daughters (above with their mother Natalie, Julia, Caroline, Odette and Bridgette) would come to his daughter Vikki’s wedding to the ex-deputy prime minister
Peter Campion said he expected Barnaby (above with his ex-wife Natalie at the Federal Parliament’s Midwinter Ball in 2017) to wear one of his Akubra hat collection as he walked down the aisle
Mr Campion’s anger over what was portrayed as a scandal followed a troubled father-daughter relationship with Vikki.
‘(Barnaby) called (Vikki) ‘a pregnant lady’. I saw red. I wanted to barbecue the damn thing,” Peter said, “but it was taken out of context… by the media. I was a little hard on him.”
The rift was healed by getting to know Mr Joyce and meeting his two “rambunctious and mischievous” grandsons.
“They came to our house and Barnaby and I went for a long walk and I berated him and his answers were within the right parameters to consider him a suitable individual,” Mr Campion said.
‘I think he’s a good guy. He is one of the better and wasted in the Nationals.
When Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion visited her parents Peter and Tracey Campion in north Queensland, the ice thawed between Vikki and her father, who has come to see his future son-in-law as ‘a good guy’.
“I continually urge him to leave that party,” said Mr Campion, a candidate against Bob Katter in last year’s federal election, on a United Australia Party ticket in Kennedy’s seat.
“He should join One Nation. I took Vikki to meet Pauline Hansen when she was about 13 or 14.”
Mr Campion will give a speech as father of the bride and may be dressed in, he says, “steel-capped boots and a ‘Make Australia Great Again’ cap.”
When asked what he will say about his daughter, he replied: “I’m here to ruffle feathers. some hard truths about modern society dominated by the lunatic left.
“Well, I only have twenty minutes. It’s a rare opportunity to drop some truth bombs.’
As for the media hunting for photos of the wedding ceremony, Campion said paparazzi photographers’ drones are “what shotguns are for.”
‘I am an enthusiastic sports shooter. Drones are so much easier to shoot than clay pigeons,” he joked.