Annita van Iersel

Anna Johanna Maria "Annita" van Iersel (born 5 October 1948), known as Annita Keating from 1975 to 1998, is a Dutch-born Australian artist and former wife of Paul Keating, the 24th prime minister of Australia.

Early life and education Anna Johanna Maria van Iersel, known as Annita, was born on 5 October 1948 in the Netherlands. Her home town in the Netherlands was Oisterwijk, North Brabant.

Career Van Iersel worked as a flight attendant for Alitalia. They married on 17 January 1975, in her home town of Oisterwijk, Netherlands. their four children Annita revealed some years after the event, in an interview with her by The Bulletin, that Keating had broken off the relationship, not she, and had done it at a dinner party with friends.

Art career Van Iersel studied at the National Art School in Darlinghurst, Sydney, graduating in 2002. In 2008 she was studying for a master's degree and went to Beijing as an exchange student at a major art college there.

Other activities Van Iersel travelled for three months in Central America after her separation from Keating in 1998.

On 19 March 2008, she opened a touring exhibition Mrs Prime Minister — Public Image, Private Lives at Old Parliament House in Canberra. The exhibition featured herself, along with five other women who had recently been wives of Australian prime ministers: Janette Howard, Hazel Hawke, Tamie Fraser, Margaret Whitlam, and Sonia McMahon.

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