Sophie Mirabella - Personal Life

Personal Life

Sophie Mirabella was born in Melbourne, Victoria, her parents having arrived in Australia from Greece in 1956. She was educated at St Catherine's School, Toorak while working per time at her father's milk bar. Upon finishing high school, Mirabella attended Melbourne University where she studied law and became involved in student activism through the Melbourne University Liberal Club, of which she was President, and as vice-president of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation. After graduating from Melbourne University with degrees in law and commerce, Mirabella worked as a solicitor and articled clerk from 1995 to 1997. From 1998 until her election to Parliament, she worked as a barrister.

In 1995, she began a live-in relationship with Colin Howard, then dean of law at Melbourne University, who was forty years her senior. The relationship ended in 2001, although they remained close until his death in 2011. Her relationship with Howard was later the subject of a bitter dispute between Mirabella and Howard's adult children.

In June 2006 she married Lieutenant-Colonel Greg Mirabella, a former Army Reserve Officer still working in the defence industry. The couple has two daughters.