As New Zealand’s most famous funeral directors, Francis and Kaiora Tipene are used to dealing with grief and sadness each and every day. But for this couple – who shot to fame in 2018 with their hit television series The Casketeers – love, laughter and happiness are never far away.
When the pair sit down to talk with Woman’s Day about their incredible journey together, it’s obvious theirs is a special relationship that has only deepened since they met in 2004 at a Maori teacher’s training college in Auckland.
“When I first saw him, I was wowed,” confesses Kaiora. “I was wowed by his singing, his guitar playing – and his hair was so fine, just like now.”
And the feeling was mutual, with Francis, 36, gushing, “I loved the way she did the poi ​and was just so, so beautiful.”
Both in relationships with other people, their feelings were put on hold but eventually circumstances changed and by August they were a couple. Then, four months later, Kaiora discovered she was pregnant.
“My first thought was that I would have to get work and the second thing was facing her mother and family,” recalls Francis. “But I didn’t want to hide because I really was in deep love.”
It was a complicated situation for the two lovebirds. While they’d both grown up in similar circumstances in Northland, Francis came from a Catholic background while Kaiora’s family is Mormon.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 10 2020-Ausgabe von Woman’s Day Magazine NZ.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 10 2020-Ausgabe von Woman’s Day Magazine NZ.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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