[4] Coffey came out as gay during a 2009 interview with Woman's Weekly and said that he lives with his long-term boyfriend, Tim Smith, a former music teacher from northern England.

New Zealand surrogacy laws required the couple to carry out a legal adoption process between them and the surrogate mother.

He continued with What Now until August 2007, when he joined the weekday morning news programme Breakfast as its first dedicated roving weather presenter.

[16] As part of series seven of the TVNZ show Intrepid Journeys, which aired on 20 January 2011, Coffey travelled to Oman on the Arabian Peninsula for three weeks.

Coffey is seen engaging in activities including mountain climbing, turtle nesting, dhow fishing cruises and souk shopping.

Coffey was also the host of New Zealand's Got Talent in 2012 and 2013,[17][18] and a fill-in presenter for current affairs programme Seven Sharp in late 2013.

[4]On 29 March 2014, Coffey was selected as the Labour Party's candidate for the Rotorua electorate at the 2014 New Zealand general election.

[22] He failed to unseat the National Party incumbent Todd McClay, and was not high enough on the list to get a seat in Parliament.

[24] He defeated Māori Party leader Te Ururoa Flavell in Waiariki by a margin of 1,321 and was elected to Parliament for the first time.

[26] During the 2020 New Zealand general election held on 17 October, Coffey narrowly lost the Waiariki electorate to Māori Party candidate Rawiri Waititi based on preliminary results.

Due to the Local Electoral Act 2001, the council had not been able to establish a governing arrangement that would include "adequate" Māori representation without a law change.

The bill passed its first reading on 6 April 2022 and was referred to the Māori Affairs Committee, which Coffey chaired.

[33] In late April 2022, the Attorney General David Parker issued a report under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 which stated that the bill discriminated against general roll voters by allocating more seats to Māori ward voters disproportionate to their share of the local population.

[34][35][36] In late April 2022, Coffey and the Rotorua Lakes Council agreed to "pause" the bill's select committee process in order to address the legal issues raised by the Attorney General.

[45][46] In October 2022, Coffey stated that he hoped that the surrogacy reform bill would pass into law before the end of the 53rd New Zealand Parliament, although this was ultimately not achieved.

In 2021, Ponsonby Rd closed and was rebranded as a cocktail and wine restaurant called Rotorua International but proved financially unprofitable.