Saturday, February 11, 2012
"There were no mobile phones then, so it was like: ‘Maybe, I’ll give you a call’"
TV PRESENTER ALAN HUGHES ON HIS HUSBAND KARL BRODERICK, COMPOSER AND SCRIPTWRITER.
"We have been together for 18 years now, which in gay terms is like 150 years. Karl has an innocence, there isn’t a bad bone in his body and that’s what I love about him.
"We met on Sept 30, 1993 in O’Connell Street. Literally, Karl dropped his keys and I picked them up and handed them to him. It was lashing rain and basically we both ended up in the same restaurant and started to chat.
"I thought he was a nice good-looking guy. We could have just said: ‘Goodbye’ and left it at that, but then it turned out we were both walking to the same bus stop and we lived in the same direction. There were no mobile phones then, so it was like: ‘Maybe, I’ll give you a call’. The next day I rang his house and Karl’s mother answered. He wasn’t there. Eventually we arranged to meet the following weekend at ‘The Yacht’ bar in Clontarf. I was worried I wouldn’t even recognise him.
"But as soon as Karl walked in, I recognised him. I remember he wore a check shirt, a waistcoat and a jacket over that. It was the layered look, the shirt wasn’t tucked in and it was all very casual. It was very Jason Donovan, who was big at the time.
"We started talking about things we had in common. I love ‘Les Miserables’ and Karl had just seen it in London and had thought is was the best thing ever. We just clicked instantly. His vulnerability is a really attractive trait.
"Within a year of meeting, we had bought our first house together. It was very quick, but it was the way we wanted it. We both knew that this was ‘it’, that we had found someone who you hoped you could spend the rest of your life with.
"Last April, Karl proposed. Literally it was the day I had won ‘Celebrity Salon’ and I popped home before the wrap party. I walked into the house, there were candles and flowers everywhere. I said: ‘What’s going on here?’ and in bounced Karl, he went down on one knee and said; ‘Will you marry me ?’
"It was such a special day. The grin never left my face for, oh I’d say weeks. We got married on our anniversary, Sept 30. We didn’t want a long engagement, we had been together for 18 years, so what was the point in hanging around.
"It’s mad isn’t it, if Karl hadn’t dropped his keys we would probably have never met. I think the secret to a happy marriage is to make each other smile. Every day we always try to make each other laugh or smile. We can go through stressful times at work, like doing the panto together, but we always have fun. ‘
* Alan Hughes’ ‘Family Fortunes’ is on Saturday at 8pm TV3
"Eadaoin was the first woman who had ever said ‘No’ to me. So it was the challenge of the chase"
WEDDINGS BY FRANC, PETER KELLY, ON HIS WIFE EADAOIN MORRISH
"The attraction was simple. Eadaoin was the first woman who had ever said ‘No’ to me. I completely could not understand it. How could she say ‘No’? So it was the challenge of the chase.
"We met on the first day of college. We were both 18, training to be chefs and I spotted her in the auditorium. There was a roll call, but when they called out her name they couldn’t pronounce it properly. They kept saying ‘Moorish’. So I said to my friend: ‘Mmm she is very moorish I hope she is in our year.’
"It turned out that not only was Eadaoin in our class, but because her surname began with ‘M’ and mine was ‘K’ we were put together as partners for the whole of the first year. So it was fate.
"The two of us were very different. But I was always mad about her. I probably asked her out within 10 minutes of meeting her, I wasn’t a person to hold back. But she wasn’t mad about me and I got a negative reply for years. I even asked her to marry me, before I had even kissed her. We were 19 and gone out to dinner, I popped a bottle of champagne and said: ‘Will you marry me?’ She said: ‘But you haven’t even kissed me!’
"After college we went our separate ways. Eadaoin went to Norway to study art and the language. I became a chef and went to the Cayman Islands.
"One Christmas, Eadaoin was leaving to go back to Norway and I can remember seeing her crying. I thought ‘Oh my God, she definitely does love me.’ It was only years later that I found out she was crying because she was thinking about her mother!
"The following summer, when we were both 22, Eadaoin rang me to say she was back home. I took her out for dinner, then we went for a walk along the beach and we kissed. That was it, we have been together ever since.
"We have now been married for 16 years, and have 4 children. The secret to a happy marriage? We always try to make time for each other. We still enjoy working together and still bounce off each other, which I think is healthy."
* Franc’s DIY Brides returns to RTÉ in April.
"Brian kept on saying to me: ‘If we buy this dog you are going to have to be here to mind it.’ I think it was his way of saying: ‘You have to live here permanently.’"
MODEL PIPPA O’CONNOR ON HER HUSBAND BRIAN ORMOND, THE TELEVISION PRESENTER
"Brian is such good fun. He is very loyal and is very good with my friends and family. He’s just so great and he is my soul mate.
"We met in January 2008 at a friend’s birthday party. We were introduced and there was an immediate spark. I don’t think we realised it at the time, but looking back there definitely was. We got on so well, I gave him my phone number and for the next five days we exchanged a few flirty texts.
"Then Brian texted me to say he was in town with friends and could we meet up. I was already out in town for dinner with my pals too, so fortunately I didn’t have any of that worry about what to wear on the first date.
"We all met up in a bar, and it was very casual. At the end of the night he asked me out. For our next date we went to see Brendan O’Carroll’s Mrs Brown’s Boys in the Olympia. But it was a little bit awkward as there were so many people who knew us there and they all started saying ‘Ahh, look at the two of you together.’
"We kissed that night and from then on we were pretty much inseparable. I knew very early on that he was ‘the one’. Two months later, in March, we went on holiday to Las Vegas and when we came back I knew that our relationship was more than just a bit of fun.
"Brian had his own house at the time, but it wasn’t a case of: ‘Do you want to move in?’ I just kind of moved my things in. Eight months later we bought a dog, Lily. Brian kept on saying to me: ‘If we buy this dog you are going to have to be here to mind it.’ I think it was his way of saying: ‘You have to live here permanently.’
"On Christmas Eve, 2009, Brian proposed. It was perfect, so romantic. He took me to the Ritz Carlton hotel, and went down on one knee. It took me a few minutes to say ‘yes’ because of all the tears. Brian kept saying; ‘Is that a yes or a no?’
"Our wedding last June was the best day of my life. We really had the greatest time, it went above and beyond what we both hoped for. We both really loved it.
"From the first time we met, we connected and here we are four years later, still happy. The chemistry has been there from the very beginning."
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