My Kitchen Rules star Colin Fassnidge, 50, found fame and fortune thanks to his cooking talents, but as well as being the place where he kick-started his career as a chef, the kitchen was also where his romance with his future wife blossomed.
The Irish-born celebrity chef was working in Sydney’s famous EST restaurant in 2000 when he met Jane Hyland, who was working as the venue’s assistant manager at the time.
Unbeknownst to both of them at the time, this woman would ultimately become Colin’s wife and mother to their daughters, Lily, 15 and Maeve, 13.
“We were both here on a working holiday at the time. It was just prior to the Olympics, so it was a good time to be in Sydney,” Jane, who is also Irish, recalled to New Idea of their first meeting.
“I don’t know what Colin’s first impressions of me were, but I thought he talked a lot!”
For Colin, Jane was not what he was expecting to find when he was searching for love Down Under. One, he was hoping to meet an Aussie girl while Jane was “hoping for Chris Hemsworth” and two, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight.
“She was tough,” Colin told the Australian Women’s Weekly in 2019, recalling that when he shouted, she shouted at him back.
“Not a good thing when you’re trying to chat her up, but I was born on knockbacks,” he admitted.
Before long, Colin and Jane’s boss set them up on a date and Colin joked that she was instantly “bowled over by my good looks and my charm.”
After that first date, things moved quickly and love between the pair began to blossom.
“We were both into food, so it went well,” Colin told New Idea. “It became serious within about six months.”
The fairytale continued with Colin and Jane exchanging vows on January 8th, 2006 while overlooking Sydney’s stunning Watson’s Bay. The wedding was attended by the couple’s nearest and dearest including many who made the trip over from Ireland for the big day.
Now two decades into their relationship, Colin and Jane’s union and family unit is stronger than ever, even though the TV personality jokes that some of their traits can get on his nerves.
“I live in a house with three women – there’s always tears and arguments. And my wife and daughters just take their clothes off and don’t put them away. That just s**ts me,” he told Escape with his tongue firmly in cheek.
“My section’s all organised and they have stuff everywhere, towels everywhere.”
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