MELISSA BELL'S WEDDING JOY 'HOW I FOUND HAPPINESS AGAIN'

THE ACTRESS TALKS WEDDING PLANS AND MOVING ON AFTER HEARTBREAK

- Zoe Burrell

Neighbours star Melissa Bell announced her engagement to Grant Thompson in 2020, just four years after the devastating death of her husband, Gary Dickinson. But no one was more surprised by the relationship than Melissa herself.

“I wasn’t looking for love,” she says. “So to meet Grant, that was really nice and it just felt right. We have a lot of things in common and we are similar in many ways. I wasn’t looking for it, but it’s a gift.”

Inviting New Idea to join her as she tried on wedding gowns at Rosa & Mary’s Bridal Shop in Queensland, Melissa was every inch the blushing bride-to-be. But, the former E Street star admits planning her big day hasn’t been smooth sailing, with the global pandemic forcing her and Grant to postpone their ceremony.

“We were going to do it last year, but a lot of Grant’s family are in New Zealand and mine are in Sydney, and with borders closing, it just got too hard,” she says.

With a new date optimistically set for November, Melissa, 48, reveals that the wedding will be a “small and intimate” affair with just their close family present. And they will be sticking to tradition.