Justin Trudeau’s Dating Rumor with Katy Perry Isn’t the First Time He’s Mirrored His Famous Dad Pierre

NEED TO KNOW

• Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has sparked dating rumors with recently single pop star Katy Perry after he took her to dinner and attended her concert

• The relationship is an interesting development, given that Justin’s late father, Pierre Trudeau, was also a Canadian prime minister who was linked to a famous singer, Barbra Streisand

• The father-son duo have had many parallels in their personal lives and careers

Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been making headlines this week after spending time with recently single pop star Katy Perry.

Perry, 40, confirmed the end of her engagement with Orlando Bloom in early July, and she and the former lawmaker, 53, have since set the rumor mill spinning after a dinner hang, dog-walking moment and concert encounter all in the span of a few days.

Justin’s own marriage ended in 2023, and since then, he has mostly kept his personal life to himself. But this recent media frenzy calls to mind another Canadian politician who made plenty of headlines when it came to his love life: Justin’s father, the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Pierre led Canada for over 15 years, first as a bachelor, then as a married man, and eventually, as a single father. The public fascination over his love life only grew when he was spotted out with starlets like Barbra Streisand and Margot Kidder.

Here’s a look at everything Justin and his beloved dad have in common when it comes to public service and personal drama.

Both Trudeaus were longtime Canadian prime ministers

Born and raised in Quebec, Pierre Trudeau studied politics and law before becoming a labour activist who was eventually elected to the House of Commons. From there, he worked his way up through the ranks, winning the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1968 and succeeding Lester B. Pearson to become prime minister.

Thanks to his charisma and the popularity of his liberal policies regarding divorce, abortion and homosexuality, “Trudeaumania” carried Pierre to four reelection victories. He ultimately served as prime minister from 1968 to 1979, then again from 1980 to 1984, briefly leading the Official opposition after losing a tight election in 1979.

He retired just before the 1984 election as Canada’s third-longest-serving prime minister, and his son would go on to continue the family legacy.

Justin followed his father’s lead into politics and was elected the leader of the Liberal Party in 2013, steering the party to a majority government and becoming the country’s second-youngest prime minister in history.

He served for nearly 10 years before announcing his resignation and stepping down in March 2025 after the Liberal Party chose Mark Carney to be his successor.

In his resignation speech, Trudeau said he believed the people of Canada deserved a “real choice in the next election”.

“It has become clear to me that if I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election,” he said.

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They both ended their marriages toward the end of their premierships

Pierre Trudeau had a bit of a playboy reputation when he first became prime minister, despite the fact that he was nearly 50 years old at the time. He quietly settled down in 1971, marrying 22-year-old Margaret Sinclair, who was 29 years his junior. The couple had three sons: Justin, Alexandre and Michel, who tragically died in an avalanche while skiing when he was just 23.

Pierre and Margaret separated in 1977 and officially divorced in 1984, at the end of his tenure as prime minister. In 1988, Canadian guitarist Liona Boyd revealed in her memoir that she had been in an eight-year relationship with Pierre before his divorce was finalized.

Pierre would go on to father a daughter, Sarah, with Deborah Margaret Ryland Coyne in 1991.

Pierre’s son took a more traditional route when it came to his family life. He met Canadian TV personality Sophie Grégoire as a childhood classmate of his brother; they reconnected as adults when they hosted a charity ball together. The pair married in 2005, and share three children: Xavier, Ella-Grace and Hadrien.

However, like his father, Justin’s marriage ended in the final stretch of his premiership. In August 2023, the then-prime minister shared the news of his separation in a since-deleted post on Instagram.

“Hi everyone, Sophie and I would like to share the fact that after many meaningful and difficult conversations, we have made the decision to separate,” Justin wrote. “As always, we remain a close family with deep love and respect for each other and for everything we have built and will continue to build.”

The Canadian Prime Minister’s office confirmed the news to PEOPLE, saying in a statement that Justin and Sophie have “worked to ensure that all legal and ethical steps with regards to their decision to separate have been taken, and will continue to do so moving forward.”

They have both sparked dating buzz with famous younger singers

Perry, 40, is the first person Justin has been publicly linked to since his split, though the nature of their relationship remains unconfirmed. The pair were spotted walking a dog, grabbing drinks, and eating at Montréal restaurant Le Violon on July 28, two days before the former PM attended her Lifetimes Tour show at the city’s Bell Centre.

Sparking headlines for spending time with a performer is just another way that Justin’s life has mimicked his father’s. Prior to his marriage, Pierre had a brief romance with rising star Barbra Streisand from 1969 to 1970.

The whirlwind relationship was highly scrutinized by the press, and Streisand looked back on it in her 2023 memoir My Name Is Barbra.

“Trudeau was very dapper, intelligent, intense … kind of a combination of Albert Einstein and Napoleon (only taller). And he was doing important work. I was dazzled,” she wrote. “He was so elegant, yet totally unpretentious and perpetually curious … an adventurer who had backpacked through the Middle East and Asia as a young man.”

However, while Streisand was drawn in by Pierre’s charisma and intelligence, she said she became intimidated by “the intensity of this relationship.” Pierre was a 50-year-old single father of two who was busy running the country, while she was 27 — and recently out of a marriage herself.

“He was a captivating combination of contradictions … an elegant man who was still enough of a free spirit to wear sandals to Parliament,” she said. “But for me, there was something missing. My brain was in love, but not my body.”

The pair went their separate ways, but reconnected multiple times over the years. When Pierre died in September 2000, Streisand paid tribute, saying, “The world lost a great leader … and I lost a great friend.”

Read the original article on People