Malcolm is PM. But there's something about Lucy Turnbull ...

Overnight, Lucy Turnbull became the wife of Australia’s 29th Prime Minister. But she is a lot more than that.

The 57-year-old mother of two is a lawyer, a business woman, an author, a community advocate – and was the first female Lord Mayor of Sydney. She holds a law degree from the University of Sydney, an MBA from the University of NSW, and has been described by the ABC as “the epitome of the high-achieving 21st century Australian woman”.

Lucy has experience in politics. The chairman of the Committee for Sydney and board member for organisations including the Biennale of Sydney, she has experience with the media. Her father, Tom Hughes QC, was a prominent barrister and a Liberal Attorney General. Her great grandfather Sir Thomas Hughes was the first Lord Mayor of Sydney. She knows how to handle life in the spotlight.

From 1999 - 2003 Lucy was Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney. In 2003, she became the Lord Mayor, a position she held for a year, smashing stereotypes along the way. At the time, she told media “I’m no shrinking violet ... we are not in the era of Stepford Wives any more.”

She has described politics as "an interesting game".

"I've been in politics myself, in city politics, and it's a calling which has, you know, really high highs and pretty low lows and anybody who's been in politics I think understands what I'm saying when I say that" she told the ABC's Australian Story in 2007.

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"I needed Malcolm when I was in politics as a sort of like a backstop," she said. "And I guess to some extent he's doing the same for me which is more than fair and I'm very happy to ... he seeks my opinion and I'm happy to give it to him ... he doesn't always take it but I think he likes hearing it."

The couple, who married in 1980, first met at Lucy father's law chambers in Sydney.

Malcolm was there to do an interview with Lucy's father Tom Hughes for a cover story for The Bulletin. 

“Our first encounter was not across a crowded room, or on a dance floor, but in the otherwise thoroughly unromantic environment of her father’s legal chambers where she was working over the summer holidays,” Malcolm Turnbull told the Australian Women's Weekly earlier this year.

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"I was sort of like two months shy of 20 and he'd just turned 24, which is crazy young when you think about it now. I didn't think we were so young then, but it's like we were babies," Lucy told the ABC.

They started dating, and when Malcolm moved to Oxford the following year to do his Rhodes Scholarship they continued their relationship, both agreeing that their love "developed through distance".

Thirty-five years on they have two grown children, Alex and Daisy - and a strong and happy relationship.

But their lives have also been shadowed by sadness. When Lucy was 36 she suffered from two heartbreaking miscarriages that "knocked them about" badly.

In an Australian Story interview, Lucy admitted that not having any more children made the couple "very sad".

She told interviewer Belinda Hawkins: "I think it would have been great to have more children. Sadly, that didn't happen because, you know, I couldn't carry a child and going through a miscarriage and worrying about having an unwell third child when you've got two fantastically healthy ones made me have reservations."

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The issue is something the Turnbull's feel strongly about, and unlike many, talk openly about.

In 2013, they became grandparents when daughter Daisy gave birth to son Jack Alexander Turnbull-Brown.

Lucy Turnbull is likely to be a very different 'first lady' to Tony Abbott's wife Margie.

Mrs Abbott has maintained a much lower profile. A former primary school teacher - now early child care centre owner - she has often been described as "her own woman", but in a  rare interview with the Australian Women's Weekly earlier this year, admitted she didn't care much for being the Prime Minister's wife in terms of the social standing and commitments it brought.

"I wouldn’t say it’s a role I relish. It’s a role I’m delighted to be able to do, but when I don’t have to do it, that’s fine, too.”

So what can we expect will be different?

One thing is for certain, we can't imagine Lucy Turnbull sticking to the sidelines. And we're a little excited for that.