Hosking and Hawkesby prepare to tie knot in secret

Mike Hosking and Kate Hawkesby. Photo / Norrie Montgomery.

Media couple Mike Hosking and Kate Hawkesby are expected to wed on Waiheke Island this weekend in a ceremony shrouded in secrecy.

Hosking, Newstalk ZB's breakfast host, and Hawkesby, a former TVNZ and Newstalk ZB presenter, are believed to be tying the knot at the vineyard of Kate's father, John.

Hosking has taken leave from the airwaves for a week, and photos on social networking sites appear to show the family getting ready for the occasion at Waiheke. Neither of the pair returned Herald calls, and their workplaces could not confirm they were getting married.

Like Dan Carter and Honor Dillon's wedding late last year, the paucity of information about the event is likely to be due to an exclusive contract with a magazine.

Hosking proposed to Hawkesby on a bridge across the Yarra River in Melbourne in July 2010 with a five-carat diamond engagement ring valued at more than $80,000. They announced their engagement in the New Zealand Woman's Weekly in a deal reported to be worth $50,000.

That magazine's editor at the time, Sido Kitchin, has now moved to rival publication Woman's Day, which is believed to hold the publication rights for the wedding.

Hosking and Hawkesby said after their engagement that their wedding would focus on their five children - Hosking's twins Ruby and Bella and Hawkesby's children Jackson, Josh and Marley.

"There were high-fives all over the place [when they were told] and immediate questions about flower girl possibilities," Hawkesby told the Woman's Weekly.

"It's more about a big party and new outfits as far as they're concerned."

The announcement was a rare public moment for the pair. Hosking has been a staunch critic of media coverage of celebrities, and his legal fight to prevent photographs of his children being published led to the establishment of a privacy tort in New Zealand.

Of the engagement, Hosking said: "It was important to me that for once, I did this out in the open. Anyone can propose in private. But I wanted to make this gesture for Katie.

"The important thing is we don't see us as being a big deal to other people. To me, it's my life and I can barely breathe with excitement - but I've been through enough now with people ringing me up and chasing me and boring me witless, to know it's better just to get it out. There it is, we're getting married, bang, let's all get on with our lives."

Hosking's show on Newstalk ZB has the largest audience for a breakfast slot in the country. Hawkesby is now a stay-at-home mum, and contributes columns to Woman's Day. Her usually prolific Twitter contributions dried up a week ago.