section_path: Personal life
section_name: Personal life
paragraph_text: Personal life
  
  His wife, Sabina Higgins (née Coyne), is an actress and a native of Cloonrane, a townland in County Galway near Ballindine, County Mayo. She grew up on a farm there in a family of five girls and two boys.
  
  Higgins met Coyne in 1969, at a party in the family home of journalist Mary Kenny in Dublin. Higgins proposed over Christmas 1973, and they married on 8 July 1974 at St Mary's Catholic Church, Haddington Road, Dublin. They have four children: Alice-Mary, Daniel, and twins, John and Michael Jr.; Alice-Mary was elected to Seanad Éireann in 2016.
  
  Higgins has a Bernese Mountain Dog named Misneach ("Courage"). He previously had two Bernese dogs named Síoda and Bród, who died in 2020 and 2023 respectively.