A romantic scandal steeped in corruption seemed impossible as Gladys Berejiklian calmly guided one-third of Australia through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The result of a coronavirus fever dream, perhaps.
Even after her clandestine relationship was exposed in the stale confines of an ICAC witness box in 2020, the stoic NSW premier brushed it off, denied wrongdoing and remained a darling of the public.
Her resignation a year later sparked thousands of calls to stay.
But the long-awaited NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation findings paint the former premier in a different light, saying she acted corruptly during a five-year secret relationship with her backbench colleague Daryl Maguire.
It concluded she engaged in serious corrupt conduct by failing to notify the commission of her suspicion Maguire had engaged in activities which concerned, or might have concerned, corrupt conduct.
She also breached public trust by promising millions of dollars for two projects Maguire was lobbying hard for in his Wagga Wagga electorate "without disclosing her close personal relationship with Maguire, when she was in a position of a conflict of interest between her public duty and her private interest".
"It undermined the high standards of probity that are sought to be achieved by the ministerial code which, as premier, Ms Berejiklian substantially administered," the ICAC said.
The 64-year-old Maguire has since been charged with giving false and misleading evidence to ICAC and participating in a visa fraud case.
Unlike most political leaders, the first woman to win a NSW election as party leader had always lived an intensely private life, with a reputation for being hard-working and always on top of her brief.
The lack of an obvious partner only fuelled a reputation for her dedication to her electorate, portfolios and the state.
The daughter of Armenian migrants had promised as much in her inaugural speech in 2003, after scraping through to win the seat of Willoughby.
"For as long as I have the honour and privilege to represent them in this place I will always put my local community first," she said.
"For me, first and foremost, politics is about people."
After the coalition was swept to power in 2011, she took the reins of the transport department, overseeing the rollout of the Opal card and beginning Australia's biggest public transport project, Sydney Metro.
Time as the industrial relations minister, Hunter minister and treasurer followed until the shock resignation of Mike Baird in 2017 elevated her to the state's highest office.
Where the coalition could have faltered under its third leader in six years, Ms Berejiklian righted the ship and navigated a path to electoral victory in 2019.
A corruption scandal when Maguire was summonsed to ICAC in 2018 was quickly closed down with his resignation.
Her authority was galvanised during the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfire crisis and reached seemingly insurmountable heights during the pandemic.
Once difficult to pronounce, Berejiklian became a household name nationally as the premier helmed daily press conferences, dictating whether people could visit loved ones or cross state borders.
While steering the state through the unprecedented crisis one headline lauded her as "The Woman Who Saved Australia".
Meanwhile, her clandestine romance quietly bubbled along in the background.
That's not to say Ms Berejiklian's political legacy would be untainted had ICAC not stumbled onto it in 2017.
Resilience NSW, a new agency established by the premier in the aftermath of the Black Summer bushfires, was to "redouble our efforts to prevent, prepare and recover from crises".
But its slow bureaucratic response to its first major crisis - the floods in the Northern Rivers in early 2022 - sparked its demise soon thereafter.
Later that year, the then-premier insisted pork barrelling was "not illegal" when defending a controversial $252 million grants program that overwhelmingly favoured seats held by the government.
"All governments and all oppositions make commitments to the community in order to curry favour," Ms Berejiklian said at the time.
"That's part of the political process whether we like it or not."
When ICAC exposed her five-year secret relationship with her "numero uno" Maguire, everyone was incredulous, but her sky-high approval ratings remained solid.
"I am normally a very good judge of character ... and I feel that I really let myself down," she said after the scandal broke.
She continued guiding NSW through the pandemic for another year until Operation Keppel turned its focus on her.
The investigation made her political career untenable.
After four years as the state's 45th premier and close to 19 years in parliament, she quit in a feisty press conference on October 1, 2021.
"I've always acted with the highest level of integrity," she told reporters.
Her resignation prompted an outpouring of grief, with constituents leaving flowers, balloons and homemade signs reading "we love Gladys" and "long live Gladys" outside her Sydney electorate office.
Nearly 80,000 people signed an online petition calling on her to stay.
Close friend and Liberal MP for Manly James Griffin says regardless of the report, "millions of people won't be changing their mind about Gladys".
"They know her as someone who led them through some very tough times and they won't forget that."
Labor premier Chris Minns was reluctant to criticise her, saying "nothing in this report takes away ... from premier Berejiklian's handling of the COVID emergency which I still regard as being excellent".
"It is important however for all politicians in NSW and anyone in public life or positions of leadership to understand we must manage conflicts of interest and declare them," he said.
Mr Minns had previously said her handling of the pandemic would not be forgotten.
Nor will be forgotten the unbelievable romantic scandal that brought down NSW's pandemic premier.
