Suzanne Paul and fiance Patrick Kuhtze. Photo / Supplied
Suzanne Paul and fiance Patrick Kuhtze. Photo / Supplied
Meeting a man on Facebook and getting engaged during an episode of Married At First Sight, New Zealand's beloved infomercial queen, Suzanne Paul, has shared the delights of her very modern love.
"A lot of women give up on love," Suzanne Paul, 63, tells the Herald. "They think they've missed the boat. But every pot has a lid, doesn't it?"
Testament to her claim is Suzanne's own story of finding love again.
What started out as a Facebook friendship with actor and session drummer Patrick Kuhtze has led to wedding bells for the pair who Suzanne describes as "two peas in a pod".
Engaged in March, it wasn't quite the setting Patrick had planned: the pair should have been in Bangkok where the 57-year-old had reservations at a riverside restaurant, ready to pop the question over a romantic meal.
Patrick's plans to propose while the couple was in Bangkok were derailed by the coronavrius pandemic. Photo / Supplied
Of course, love in the time of coronavirus has altered many a romantic plan for couples around the world. But as it turned out, Patrick's proposal at home was still "lovely", says Suzanne, who has been a Kiwi household name since she began fronting infomercials for Natural Glow makeup in the 90s.
Suzanne, who flies frequently between New Zealand and Australia for her work with Thin Lizzy parent company Brand Developers, was already in self-isolation ahead of the nationwide lockdown. And one night, as the couple were sat watching MAFS, Patrick decided it was time to make his move.
Getting off his chair and down on one knee, Suzanne says she thought he was just being silly.
"I thought it was a joke. I said, 'Oh yeah, very funny. You want me to put the bins out.'"
But Patrick was dead serious. Suzanne says she wasn't expecting the proposal but wonders if a cheeky text back in February about women proposing in leap years may have prompted him to make the move.
"I told him if I wasn't such an old fashioned girl … I think that gave him a bit of a nudge."
The pair first met in person in August, 2018, but had been chatting on Facebook for several months prior.
"We'd been Facebook friends for a while," explains Suzanne, adding she is friends with lots of people from fans to actors and musicians.
But it was when Suzanne, originally from Wolverhampton in England, learned that Patrick was taking his father back to the UK to travel through England, Scotland and Ireland, that her interest was piqued.
"I kicked the messages off when I saw that he was in Tralee in Ireland."
Apparently Patrick was in a pub with his dad when Suzanne slid into his direct messages.
"Oh my crikey, Suzanne Paul's just messaged me," he told his dad, who promptly told him he'd better message her right back.
Suzanne said while Patrick's funny comments on her Facebook posts made it clear he had a great sense of humour, she "did a bit of Facebook stalking" too, just to be sure.
"I wondered what kind of man he was. I didn't want to get my heart broken."
As it turned out, Patrick is a lot like Suzanne in many ways. He's also probably a familiar face to many Kiwis: he's appeared on Shortland St, Xena, Hercules, and is currently the face of AA's latest series of television commercials. He's also a session drummer who has often teamed up with the likes of Eddie Rayner of Split Enz fame.
Patrick Kuhtze is a session drummer and actor. Photo / Supplied
The couple's first meeting took place at a pub on Auckland's North Shore.
Suzanne and her colleagues were up for a girl's night out and decided to make the bar where Patrick was performing the place.
"It was a bit like being a teenager again," Suzanne says of the exchanged glances from her spot at a bar table and Patrick's position on stage - and her colleagues whispering, "Oh, he's looking over here."
"You want to see if there's a spark," says Suzanne, before sharing that when Patrick did approach her to say hello, she quickly realised there was "a roaring fire".
Suzanne and Patrick are "two peas in a pod". Photo / Supplied
In November of last year, Patrick moved in with Suzanne. And Patrick's son Corbin, also a drummer, has joined them too. Suzanne says most recently the trio have been making the most of life in lockdown together.
"I live in a house of musicians," says Suzanne. "We dance about, we play darts, play petanque. I can't think of two better people to be in lockdown with."
When it comes to tying the knot, Suzanne says after being married twice before, she's after something small and intimate.
"This is third time lucky, you know. I've done the big white wedding with all the bells and whistles. I got married in Fiji, something simple and elegant would suit me."
And while the pair were eyeing up February 2021, to coincide in part with a "dear friend and her husband" visiting from the UK, coronavirus may still well change all of that, Suzanne acknowledges.
