Prime Minister Anthony Albanese literally let the cat out of the bag at today’s portrait unveiling for former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd – accidentally letting slip that it was the first portrait of a PM to include a family pet.

The official portrait, painted by Ralph Heimans, had yet to be formally unveiled, and there were giggles all round as the Prime Minister tried to backtrack.

There was great comedy at the event as the PM asked the artist “how on Earth you persuaded Kevin to sit still long enough to paint it”. It was Mr Rudd, however, who got the most laughs with his self-deprecating humour.

“To members of my staff – all 4,602 of them – you can tell them because they’re the ones exhibiting PTSD,” he said. “Some of them are still carrying wounds. There’s a therapy tent later on.”

He acknowledged the fact that the portrait was a long time coming, as it had been nearly 10 years since he left office and “sought political asylum in the United States”.

“It’s a funny thing being asked to speak at an event like this. I’ve done a lot of public speaking over the year – most of you have had to endure it – but speaking at the unveiling of the Prime Minister portrait is as close you come in life to being asked to speak at your own wake. But here goes.”

Mr Rudd said he had been putting off doing the portrait.

“The directors for the parliamentary collection here became so exasperated that they got to the point of threatening to organise anybody to do a knock-up job based on my official photograph – and if you’ve seen my photograph, that’s not something of which you’d be proud,” Mr Rudd said. “So vanity ultimately prevailed.”

Artist Ralph Heimans said the painting had been four years in the making, beginning in 2019 when he met Mr Rudd for a beer in Sydney.

“We tried to analyse what aspects of that legacy, what story we were going to tell,” Ralph said. “Soon afterwards was the pandemic, so we continued our discussions on Zoom. In lockdown it was difficult to progress the painting. I saw Kevin and Thérèse’s home in London, and the study of Kevin had so much evidence of his presence. All the books, floor to ceiling, of China and local politics, incredible Chinese vases, and a very expensive set of teacups, all of which somehow ended up in the painting.”

After the lockdown, when they met back in Australia, Kevin’s current cat, Louie, was determined to annoy them during the sitting, constantly interrupting.

“So in ode to Jasper, the ‘first feline’ when Kevin was Prime Minister, I decided to include it in the painting,” Mr Heimans said.

The cat is officially out of the bag.