Former All Black Josh Kronfeld set to marry longtime sweetheart

Bronwyn Kronfeld-Illingworth and Josh Kronfeld will tie the knot later this year.

Legendary former All Black flanker Josh Kronfeld has announced his engagement to longtime partner Bronwyn Illingworth.

After a seven-year relationship and two children together, the couple will tie the knot later in the year, they tell Woman's Weekly.

The bride-to-be is sporting a unique ring made by Kiwi jewellery designer Steve Holford, featuring diamonds and sapphires - which are the birthstone of their five-year-old son Cassius, who helped Kronfeld pop the question.

"Josh said, 'Cassius is going to give you something'", Illingsworth told the Woman's Weekly.

"I expected him to hand me a leaf or a spider or something, but then he turned and he was holding the box and I thought, 'Oh! This is my moment!"

The couple met when Illingsworth's brother-in-law managed Kronfeld during his rugby days - and she later became his hairdresser.

The co-owner of Toni & Guy New Zealand, Illingsworth has won awards here and overseas and counts celebrities like Robbie Williams among her former clients.

"In her world, Bronwyn's the superstar", Kronfeld says.

After such a long friendship and relationship, Kronfeld jokes that he popped the question, "because Bronwyn was moaning so much" - but that they're both looking to married life and officially becoming a family.

- nzherald.co.nz