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Jacinda: The Untold Stories: Unauthorized Biography
Drawing on more than 100 interviews and extensive research, journalists DAVID COHEN and REBECCA KEILLOR track the rise, fall and re-emergence of former NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern onto the global stage, just as the UN gears up to choose a new Secretary-General. With the world on a powderkeg, is Ardern up to the job?
In June 2025, Jacinda Ardern’s official memoir “A Different Kind of Power” was released to mixed reviews with a common
“There are hints scattered throughout showing where A Different Kind of Power could have gone if Ardern had taken a more, well, transparent approach…if we as an audience ever want to learn the intimate details of Ardern’s political legacy or, separately, the true picture of her as a globally admired woman filled with anger and resolve, someone else will have to write it.” – The Spinoff
The unauthorised biography, The Untold Stories, is the book the critics wanted.
Authors David Cohen and Rebecca Keillor obtain fly-on-the-wall “We didn’t spend enough time debating serious things in Cabinet that I can recall…”
And talk to insiders on both “World-class communicator. Village-class implementer”…”It’s just there are some dreadful people out there who are just looking to hate and a woman leader is a great target for their hatred. They’re wanting strong father figures and instead they get empathetic mother figures”…”People say ‘oh the attacks she was getting’. Well, welcome to leadership. If you want to be loved… get a dog, I mean, it’s not about you. It’s about your responsibility.”
The most engaging political biography you’ll read this year.
The Untold Stories brings together the perspectives of a hundred New Zealanders—politicians, journalists, academics, community leaders, frontline workers, and everyday citizens—to paint the most unfiltered portrait yet of Jacinda Ardern’s leadership.
Rather than leaning on curated narratives or partisan spin, this book captures raw, unvarnished reflections on the former Prime Minister’s rise, her handling of crisis, and the profound cultural and political impact of her years in office. From the Christchurch mosque attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic to debates around free speech, governance, and international image-making, the interviews reveal the deep divides, admiration, and criticisms that defined her time in power.
The result is a mosaic of voices that resists easy Ardern as empathetic visionary, Ardern as political tactician, Ardern as authoritarian, Ardern as trailblazer. By weaving these accounts together, the book distills recurring themes and sharp insights into what her leadership has meant for New Zealand—and what it signals for politics in the 21st century.
Comprehensive, balanced, and often provocative, this work is the most detailed exploration of Jacinda Ardern’s political legacy to date.
What Reviewers Are
“An arresting account of modern New Zealand political history” – Newsroom
“It’s a big book, it is not one note, it is not ‘Jacinda Ardern sucked’. It attempts to examine her and her legacy in a 360 way” – Radio New Zealand
“Cohen… is more even-handed, and his is probably closest to the story about Ardern..
In June 2025, Jacinda Ardern’s official memoir “A Different Kind of Power” was released to mixed reviews with a common
“There are hints scattered throughout showing where A Different Kind of Power could have gone if Ardern had taken a more, well, transparent approach…if we as an audience ever want to learn the intimate details of Ardern’s political legacy or, separately, the true picture of her as a globally admired woman filled with anger and resolve, someone else will have to write it.” – The Spinoff
The unauthorised biography, The Untold Stories, is the book the critics wanted.
Authors David Cohen and Rebecca Keillor obtain fly-on-the-wall “We didn’t spend enough time debating serious things in Cabinet that I can recall…”
And talk to insiders on both “World-class communicator. Village-class implementer”…”It’s just there are some dreadful people out there who are just looking to hate and a woman leader is a great target for their hatred. They’re wanting strong father figures and instead they get empathetic mother figures”…”People say ‘oh the attacks she was getting’. Well, welcome to leadership. If you want to be loved… get a dog, I mean, it’s not about you. It’s about your responsibility.”
The most engaging political biography you’ll read this year.
The Untold Stories brings together the perspectives of a hundred New Zealanders—politicians, journalists, academics, community leaders, frontline workers, and everyday citizens—to paint the most unfiltered portrait yet of Jacinda Ardern’s leadership.
Rather than leaning on curated narratives or partisan spin, this book captures raw, unvarnished reflections on the former Prime Minister’s rise, her handling of crisis, and the profound cultural and political impact of her years in office. From the Christchurch mosque attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic to debates around free speech, governance, and international image-making, the interviews reveal the deep divides, admiration, and criticisms that defined her time in power.
The result is a mosaic of voices that resists easy Ardern as empathetic visionary, Ardern as political tactician, Ardern as authoritarian, Ardern as trailblazer. By weaving these accounts together, the book distills recurring themes and sharp insights into what her leadership has meant for New Zealand—and what it signals for politics in the 21st century.
Comprehensive, balanced, and often provocative, this work is the most detailed exploration of Jacinda Ardern’s political legacy to date.
What Reviewers Are
“An arresting account of modern New Zealand political history” – Newsroom
“It’s a big book, it is not one note, it is not ‘Jacinda Ardern sucked’. It attempts to examine her and her legacy in a 360 way” – Radio New Zealand
“Cohen… is more even-handed, and his is probably closest to the story about Ardern..
274 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 5, 2025
About the author
David Cohen
400 books24 followersLibrarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 24, 2025
A damning review of the economic and political illiteracy of a Prime Minister, so focused on her own beliefs and values, where her actions offered a completely different set of circumstances for the people.
A population divided, an economy indebted, and not one metric with a positive outcome, and only one recorded instance of political transperency, Jacinda Ardern left New Zealand in structural ruin, more dependent on imported resources, with rampant price increases beyond many new Zealander's ability to cope.
The catastrophic increase in mental health, suicide statistics, crime and racial division created by her policies will remain with New Zealanders for decades.
Yet those untouched by it all, still clutch on to the dream; ie her message of kindness, empathy and inclusion - but her actions and outcomes had the opposite effect - and speak volumes.
It is no wonder she no longer lives in New Zealand, and even claims the need to hide on local flights and or in cafes, when the fact is many kiwi's simply would not want anything to do with Ardern, and the rest are about to find out.
As the government following hers scrambles to right the wrongs, the fact remains. Thousands of cafes, restaurants and other service business's went broke, grants to cover the costs were illegally converted to loans breaking even more businesses, and prices to perform the basic and former activities in an economy are now out of reach of many: home affordibility, home upkeep, taxes and property rates - all laden with a debt that the people haven't yet quite worked out who's paying for it all.
As the saying goes, you get what you vote for, and the people always get what's coming to them.
If only New Zealander's weren't so apathetic and so easily governed, we could have a chance to right this, but that seems a long way off as many still hang on to populist policies, and more and more New Zealander's are distracted by consumerism, and a lack of true community - at the heart level.
The racial divide Ardern left is a stunning display of kiwi's prejudices, as New Zealand's very own Senior Courts Act (which replaced the Supreme Court Act) states clearly: where there is a difference between the Maori version, and the English version, the Maori version takes precedence.
The more easily governable and manipulated kiwi's remain under a divide-and-conquer policy, the more you'll hear the whining, bitching and moaning, whilst the true cowards escape and settle other lands - just like Ardern.
A population divided, an economy indebted, and not one metric with a positive outcome, and only one recorded instance of political transperency, Jacinda Ardern left New Zealand in structural ruin, more dependent on imported resources, with rampant price increases beyond many new Zealander's ability to cope.
The catastrophic increase in mental health, suicide statistics, crime and racial division created by her policies will remain with New Zealanders for decades.
Yet those untouched by it all, still clutch on to the dream; ie her message of kindness, empathy and inclusion - but her actions and outcomes had the opposite effect - and speak volumes.
It is no wonder she no longer lives in New Zealand, and even claims the need to hide on local flights and or in cafes, when the fact is many kiwi's simply would not want anything to do with Ardern, and the rest are about to find out.
As the government following hers scrambles to right the wrongs, the fact remains. Thousands of cafes, restaurants and other service business's went broke, grants to cover the costs were illegally converted to loans breaking even more businesses, and prices to perform the basic and former activities in an economy are now out of reach of many: home affordibility, home upkeep, taxes and property rates - all laden with a debt that the people haven't yet quite worked out who's paying for it all.
As the saying goes, you get what you vote for, and the people always get what's coming to them.
If only New Zealander's weren't so apathetic and so easily governed, we could have a chance to right this, but that seems a long way off as many still hang on to populist policies, and more and more New Zealander's are distracted by consumerism, and a lack of true community - at the heart level.
The racial divide Ardern left is a stunning display of kiwi's prejudices, as New Zealand's very own Senior Courts Act (which replaced the Supreme Court Act) states clearly: where there is a difference between the Maori version, and the English version, the Maori version takes precedence.
The more easily governable and manipulated kiwi's remain under a divide-and-conquer policy, the more you'll hear the whining, bitching and moaning, whilst the true cowards escape and settle other lands - just like Ardern.
December 21, 2025
The truth about Jacinda
An excellent read,easy to follow and factual. Great
contrast to the other book on Jacinda which was clearly written for the overseas market, not NZ.
An excellent read,easy to follow and factual. Great
contrast to the other book on Jacinda which was clearly written for the overseas market, not NZ.
Read
December 27, 2025Ko te tangata is FOR the people. And it's waiata-ā-ringA.
May 17, 2026
I found it hard to get through this book because it’s like reliving the awful uncomfortable truths of what NZ as a country became under this woman.
Read it though , I did.
The story of her early days, her Mormon background which apparently contains the concept of kindness. This so called kindness however did not spew out into reality like it did her mouth , but was more of a token abuse of the word ‘kind’ . Being kind is not ... tittle tattle on your neighbours, locking healthy people away, keeping people away from their dying relatives, forcing new technology in the guise of vaccines, treating people that decided they didn’t want to to have genetic novel
technology inserted into their bodies.
This book is written by a journalist who talks about his first face to face encounter with Jacinda Ardern in 2011 when they were onstage together for a paid event in Auckland.
The book is based on research and 100 + interviews with people who have things to say about her, covering aspects not mentioned in MSM. It is an unbiased (unauthorised ) biography as journalism should be, leaving the reader to make up their own minds and form their own opinions. about Ardern the former PM of New Zealand. (who although has left NZ politics , is still asserting her global presence at every opportunity she gets)
I’m still unsure as to what position the author stands about the once NZ prime minister. Her leadership caused huge problems and created a very divided nation, a legacy which is still ever present.
I’m indifferent to my thoughts on this book. The graphs at the back are useful to visualise what we already know.
3/5
Read it though , I did.
The story of her early days, her Mormon background which apparently contains the concept of kindness. This so called kindness however did not spew out into reality like it did her mouth , but was more of a token abuse of the word ‘kind’ . Being kind is not ... tittle tattle on your neighbours, locking healthy people away, keeping people away from their dying relatives, forcing new technology in the guise of vaccines, treating people that decided they didn’t want to to have genetic novel
technology inserted into their bodies.
This book is written by a journalist who talks about his first face to face encounter with Jacinda Ardern in 2011 when they were onstage together for a paid event in Auckland.
The book is based on research and 100 + interviews with people who have things to say about her, covering aspects not mentioned in MSM. It is an unbiased (unauthorised ) biography as journalism should be, leaving the reader to make up their own minds and form their own opinions. about Ardern the former PM of New Zealand. (who although has left NZ politics , is still asserting her global presence at every opportunity she gets)
I’m still unsure as to what position the author stands about the once NZ prime minister. Her leadership caused huge problems and created a very divided nation, a legacy which is still ever present.
I’m indifferent to my thoughts on this book. The graphs at the back are useful to visualise what we already know.
3/5
February 21, 2026
Much more objective than it might have been considering the 'unauthorized' proclamation and the 'untold stories' subtitle. Cohen writes very well, coherently, and with consideration for his subject. He doens't mince matters in terms of her achievements or the lack of them, but the many people quoted are given room to speak both positively and negatively about Jacinda, and there are some interesting views from people you might not expect to be either positive or negative.
The Gun Control edict and the sudden closure of the Marsden Point refinery are given little attention, however, as is the White Island eruption and the subsequent deaths. Whether Cohen he didn't have room to cover everything adequately, the first two of these perhaps deserved more attention and comment.
In general, however, this is a fair assessment of Arden's time as PM, with an interesting balance of positive and negative.
The Gun Control edict and the sudden closure of the Marsden Point refinery are given little attention, however, as is the White Island eruption and the subsequent deaths. Whether Cohen he didn't have room to cover everything adequately, the first two of these perhaps deserved more attention and comment.
In general, however, this is a fair assessment of Arden's time as PM, with an interesting balance of positive and negative.
March 11, 2026
This is the most accurate book on the Ardern administration to date, and although it dives in to a few of the poor decisions she made, it could have been far more damning, given how much damage she caused to New Zealand, this book showcases the tip of the iceberg, which was a much needed rebuttal to her memoir
April 7, 2026
I don’t need to review this. The state of our nation does it for me. But it offers a brilliant insight into the mind and character of a media created hero and a political party so far out of its depth, it’s actually remarkable to think they still have so many of the same members. And Andrew’s review 25/12 does a superb job all on its own!
December 28, 2025
Excellent book that focuses on facts. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in NZ politics.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews