Netherlands PM Rob Jetten’s love life: Meet Nico Keenan, Olympic hockey star set to become nation’s first ‘First Gentleman’

When Rob Jetten was sworn in at Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague, he made Dutch political history. At 38, he became the country’s youngest prime minister and its first openly gay head of government.Jetten’s Democrats 66 (D66) party narrowly defeated the Party for Freedom (PVV), led by Geert Wilders, in October’s election. He then formed a centre-right minority coalition with the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA). Because the coalition does not command a parliamentary majority, major reforms, including an additional €19bn for defence and cuts to healthcare and benefits, must be negotiated vote by vote in both houses.

He succeeds Dick Schoof, whose government was among the shortest-lived in recent Dutch history.

The athlete beside the prime minister

Alongside the political milestone, attention has also turned to Jetten’s partner, Nico Keenan, who now informally steps into an unprecedented symbolic position, the Netherlands’ first “First Gentleman in Waiting.”On the morning of the swearing-in, Keenan shared a short video on TikTok and Instagram showing Jetten in formal morning dress before leaving for the palace.

“It’s today,” he wrote in the caption, adding a face holding back tears emoji.Keenan was born in Buenos Aires and has represented Argentina in international field hockey. He was part of the national squad that reached the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Olympics and later helped Argentina return to the last eight at the Paris Games. Before that, he had been living in The Hague for several years, playing for field hockey club HC Klein Zwitserland.

From private hesitation to public visibility

It was in The Hague, in 2022, that Keenan and Jetten first connected. The story has since become part of their public narrative: Jetten “slid into the DMs” of the Argentine athlete after repeatedly spotting him in supermarkets and coffee shops around the city.Jetten had already been publicly out for almost all of his political career. For Keenan, however, the process of visibility was more complicated. He has spoken about an early moment in their relationship when Jetten left a supportive comment under one of his Instagram posts after a hockey match, only for Keenan to panic and ask him to delete it.

He also admitted that he once pretended not to know Jetten when they ran into friends at breakfast.

In 2023, Keenan publicly came out as bisexual. He later reflected on those earlier experiences, saying they reminded him of the themes in the TV show “Heated Rivalry,” in which professional ice hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov struggle for years with their feelings while competing at the highest level of sport.Jetten and Keenan announced their engagement in November 2024, a few months after the Paris Olympics. Dutch media have reported that they are planning their wedding for the summer of 2026.Jetten now joins a small group of openly LGBTQ heads of government or state in Europe. While Keenan’s role carries no constitutional authority, his visibility alongside a sitting prime minister represents a shift in both political and sporting spaces