Media couple's wedding kept secret

Kate Hawkesby and Mike Hosking. Photo / Norrie Montgomery

Mike Hosking and Kate Hawkesby know how to be discreet - when they want to.

This week media were scrambling to find their wedding, which was supposedly on Waiheke Island. Meanwhile the couple, dubbed "Mikate", were tying the knot at the luxury Huka Lodge in Taupo.

Hosking was off air from his breakfast host job at Newstalk ZB, and Hawkesby, a former journalist for TVNZ and Newstalk ZB, stopped posting to the website Twitter, a sure sign something was up.

The silence was because Hawkesby, a women's magazine columnist, and her new husband had signed an exclusive deal with one of the glossies.

Newstalk ZB yesterday confirmed the couple had wed in "an intimate ceremony".

"A group of 30 to 40 friends and family celebrated with them."

But there was little time for a honeymoon - Hosking is due back at work on Tuesday morning and Hawkesby was home with the children on Friday, looking relaxed in a summer dress. Close family members swore they knew nothing.

On Thursday Hawkesby's ex-husband Richard Lyne said he'd be "the last to know" of the wedding, while Hosking's ex-wife Marie would not comment.

And three days after the event, Taupo Mayor Rick Cooper still had no idea his town had played host. "Did they really?" he said. "I wish them all the best and congratulate them on choosing a great venue."

Midweek, Hawkesby's brother-in-law Nick Coutant, who is married to the bride's sister Jessica and lives in Christchurch, said they'd both been home all week. "I don't think there was a wedding. Look, I imagine if there was a wedding then we would have got invited."

Hawkesby and Hosking announced their engagement in July in NZ Woman's Weekly. They have five children.