Justin Trudeau is 53 years old, divorced, unemployed, and wearing only jeans, cuddling up to Katy Perry on a yacht.
A Canadian social source said, “Dating Katie could be Justin’s answer to going to Burning Man.” “It’s a bit of a midlife crisis.”
Prime Minister Trudeau resigned in January after a decade of popularity as Canada’s prime minister.
His resignation comes after his wife of 18 years, Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau, announced that their relationship would end in August 2023. Trudeau didn’t want their marriage to end while he was in office, but Sophie, 50, “insisted on it,” he said.
Now, Perry could be Trudeau’s way to get back on track.
“He’s sowing his oats all over again,” an association source told Page Six. “He is freed from the bonds of office and marriage.”
Another friend said this was a “big breather” moment for Trudeau, who has spent most of his 40s “bound by duty.”
What started as fun may end up being a good thing for both Trudeau and Perry, who turns 41 on Oct. 25.
“Both parties need a boost, and it could be mutually beneficial,” one of the people said, noting the two have high-profile mutual friends, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez.
Bezos and Trudeau were photographed together in 2018, and Sanchez and Perry are great friends. However, sources say the Bezoses did not introduce the new couple.
“I don’t think anyone who knows Justin would be surprised that he would date a celebrity,” said a source at the association. “It’s a reflection of his father. It’s in his DNA to do this.”
Former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who died in 2000, was famous for dating a string of famous women, from Barbra Streisand to Kim Cattrall.
Meanwhile, the younger Trudeau “used to be a high school drama teacher. I always come back to that when describing his character. He wants to be on stage.”
Perry, who loves the spotlight, has never been shy about her relationships with men including John Mayer, ex-husband Russell Brand, and ex-fiancé Orlando Bloom, who announced their split in July.
On Monday, Perry cheekily winked at a paparazzi photo of her and Trudeau swooping in close to each other on a yacht near Santa Barbara.
When a fan proposed to her on stage, Perry quipped, “No wonder I always have a crush on British guys, but not now. You know, you really should have asked me like 48 hours ago.”
Sources say Perry is looking to do something fun after a tough year, including her split from Bloom, with whom she shares five-year-old daughter Daisy Dove, and the backlash over her rocketing into space with Sanchez and Gayle King in April.
Perry, who claimed he was “going to be an astronaut,” was widely ridiculed for using three minutes of weightlessness to promote the set list for his “Life Times” tour.
Perry’s seventh studio album, 143, which took the music world by storm in the early 2000s, was released last year to a lukewarm reception. She is also embroiled in a legal dispute with Bloom over a $15 million mansion he bought in Montecito, California.
“One person who worked closely with Justin in politics joked to me, ‘Who better than Katy Perry to understand the mood that peaked in the mid-2010s?'” the social source said.
The pair were first spotted having dinner at Montreal’s upscale restaurant Le Villon in July, and a few days later Trudeau attended Perry’s concert with his daughter Ella Grace, 16.
“Justin is fascinated by her,” a friend tells Us, adding that he’s likely attracted to the fact that Perry is famous but “excluded from the[showbiz]industry.”
Over the summer, onlookers told Page Six that Perry joined Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Chester, Nova Scotia, to check out homes for sale. However, Perry’s representatives denied that she was going around the house with Perry.
When asked how Trudeau’s ex-wife felt about his new relationship, a source at the association said Sophie was “perplexed” after seeing the photo.
“Years ago, Justin was in a boxing match with (Sen. Patrick Brazeau) and Justin won. You could see Sofia standing over him saying, ‘Be humble, be humble,'” the source said. “She was always ‘Jiminy Cricket’ standing on his shoulders… She knows who she married.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Sophie reunited at Thanksgiving in Canada and posted a photo with their youngest son Hadrian, 11. “The things we love are not meant to be preserved forever. People, places, and moments are all meant to be lived, not owned,” she commented in another post.
Canadian columnist Sinan Ghobani, who has followed Trudeau for years, told Page Six:
“He’s inseparable from the spotlight and used to blending into a creamy set. I think he really doesn’t care what people say about him because he’s been slammed so often, unfairly, here in Canada.”
Additional reporting by Jeanette Settembre
