After accepting the final rose from The Bachelor NZ’s Jordan Mauger in 2015, then being publicly dumped just a few days later, anyone would forgive Fleur Verhoeven for steering clear of love. Yet fast-forward a decade and the 36-year-old teacher is a mum to three girls, living in a happily blended family with her partner, celebrated Kiwi photographer Richard Wood.
“I never regretted doing the show,” she insists.
“It pushed me outside my comfort zone. I had fun, I learnt a lot and I’m exactly where I want to be now.”
Falling for Richard, 46, just a few months after the show ended helped ease the pain of her very public break-up. It was back in her Hawke’s Bay hometown of Havelock North, while doing her own photographic work, that Fleur met her true love.
The couple are now proud parents to three daughters – Emilie Rose, 16, Richard’s daughter from a previous relationship, their first-born Alouette, three, and Ottilie, who is just eight months. Ottilie’s entrance into the world was a far cry from the natural delivery Fleur had hoped for. Moments after her beautiful baby girl arrived, doctors whisked the tiny tot to the neonatal care unit for breathing difficulties.
A life-threatening birth
Fleur, meanwhile, was left fighting for her life with internal bleeding in her abdomen. After losing 4.7 litres of blood, she spent two days in the intensive care unit, enduring eight hours of surgery, which ended in an emergency hysterectomy.
“When I woke up, I asked if my baby was alive and if I was even alive – it all felt like a dream,” she recalls.
Thankfully, Ottie is now a smiley, happy baby, adored by her big sister, who greets her each morning with an enthusiastic, “Hi, darling!”
Strength through family
Her arrival has further cemented the already unbreakable bond between Fleur and Richard.
“We don’t really fight,” Fleur says.
“We’re best friends.”
Motherhood in motion
Watching her navigate motherhood with patience and steadiness, Richard remains in awe of how easily Fleur connects with people.
“She gets on with everyone,” he says.
“Fleur’s the calmest person I know and an absolutely incredible mother, extremely devoted to all three girls.”
While marriage is on the cards because Fleur would like to share a surname with the girls, there’s no rush. Her dream is for a small, intimate event when the children are a bit older.
Celebrating on their teams
“I’d like a party,” she shares.
“But I also want to enjoy it without worrying about settling a baby between speeches.”
Fleur and Richard are clear that family comes first, and work fits around the kids. Five years ago, she realised her dream of becoming a teacher and she runs the couple’s online photography shop, Kiwiana Print, specialising in nostalgic snaps.
Meanwhile, Richard keeps racking up awards, winning the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography Photographer of the Year five times, collecting top international and national honours, and teaching photography workshops around the globe.
Fleur’s delighted with how far she has come since her Bachelor days and is thankful that she never let the show define her. And she couldn’t be happier that returning home led her to find true love with Richard.
“Everything happens for a reason,” she enthuses.
“Back then, it wasn’t meant to be. Now it is.”
