Forget roses, Champagne and grand gestures – when reality TV powerhouse Cassie Roma proposed to Football Ferns legend Māia Jackman on the former athlete’s 50th birthday, it all went down at the top of the stairs.
The couple was at their Auckland home, getting ready to take Māia’s 10-year-old daughter Kaea to basketball practice, when Cassie, 44, caught Māia completely off guard by popping the question.
Māia smiles, “It was such a low-key proposal, I thought Cassie was kidding to start, but then I realised she was serious!”
Māia says she’s excited to be walking down the aisle for the first time with the Celebrity Treasure Island and The Apprentice Aotearoa star.
Māia opens up about love
“I’ve been engaged twice but not married,” Māia explains.
“It feels super-right with Cassie. At our age, we’ve done a lot of inner work, and we understand what’s good and what’s not.”
A proposal made in private
The proposal may have been unconventional, but it was the perfect time to make things official, with the couple still glowing after Māia’s intimate birthday celebrations with whānau and friends the night before.
Cassie shares, “It wasn’t a big, showy Instagram proposal. We have nothing to prove to anyone. It was just Māia and me in the moment.”
The happily engaged lovebirds first met 15 years ago through mutual friend Sarah Gregorius, who was Cassie’s “work wife” and Māia’s teammate on the Football Ferns. At the time, Cassie was in the first of her two former marriages, but meeting Māia left a lasting impression.
A Facebook memory sparks curiosity
Cassie recalls, “I used to drop Sarah off at trainings and would see Māia. One day in Whitianga, Māia, Sarah and I took a picture together, which I posted online. Every year, it’d pop up as a Facebook Memory and I’d think, ‘I wonder what she’s up to?’”
Then in November last year, the pair was finally reacquainted at a star-studded speakers workshop.
Māia shares, “I walked in a little after Dame Lisa Carrington and saw all these amazing people. I thought, ‘What the heck am I doing here?’ I was looking for someone I knew, but I didn’t see anyone.”
Butterflies and first impressions
Meanwhile, Cassie admits to getting butterflies when Māia – one of New Zealand’s all-time greatest female footballers – walked in.
She grins, “I said about three times, ‘Is that Māia Jackman?’ I thought I’d go up and introduce myself as a familiar face, but she didn’t recognise me!”
Māia continues, “Cassie’s name was familiar, but it took me a minute to figure out who she was. She looks nothing like she used to!”
Cassie jokes, “I’ve had a glow-up!” adding that a long conversation left them both feeling an undeniable spark.
In her car on the way home, Māia listened to a Between Two Beers podcast featuring Cassie.
A text that changed everything
“In it, Cassie said she had a lot of lady crushes,” she recalls.
“I was thinking, ‘I don’t have a chance.’”
The next morning, Cassie woke to a text from Māia and they met a few days later for a four-hour coffee, then a dinner date, where they discovered they shared a similar sense of humour and even the same therapist. Cassie admits their special bond was a surprise to both of them
Love found later in life
“We were really happy being single and not looking for romance. Both of us were fine about growing old on our own and definitely had no intention of going on dating apps. “But it’s been amazing to find each other at this stage of life, when we’ve both been through the trenches, know who we are, what our boundaries are, and have healthy communication and respect for each other.”
New Zealand becomes home
The pair’s engagement has also cemented New Zealand as home for California-born Cassie, who’s worked between Aotearoa and the United States for the past two decades. She moved back to the US three years ago to support a terminally ill friend and heal from her second divorce. Her daughter Chelsea, 19, moved back with her and is still thriving at university abroad.
When Cassie and Māia reconnected last year, Cassie was back here filming her three-part docuseries Heal The Hauraki and fully expected to return to the US once it wrapped, but finding love completely upended all that.
Making New Zealand home
Cassie smiles, “New Zealand’s definitely home now. Sometimes you have to leave to come back.”
The women have since visited each other’s families in Australia and the States, and their daughters are excited about the engagement news.
Māia laughs, “When I told Kaea that Cassie had asked me to marry her, she said, ‘You better have said yes or I’ll punch you!’ They get on like a house on fire.”
Wedding plans are up in the air
The relaxed couple hasn’t locked in wedding plans yet, though Māia says “a small beach thing and a big after-party” is one option, possibly at the beginning of 2027.
“We’re very untraditional,” she grins.
Cassie adds, “We get to make up everything as we go along. Will we get tattoos or rings? It’ll probably be rings, but who knows?”
Professionally, there are some exciting things on the horizon for both women. Māia is a physiotherapist but recently gave up clinical work to take on two key roles in the sports world. She’s working
as a team leader with High Performance Sport New Zealand and she’s also joined an international panel of former pro footballers working with FIFA to combat racism.
Fighting racism in football
“FIFA has so much influence globally and socially, so hopefully our Players Voice Panel can help to switch the dial when it comes to racism in football and society too,” says Māia, who is of Nga¯puhi, Patuharakeke, Ngāti Whātua, Ngātiwai and Tainui descent.
Meanwhile, with the third episode of Heal The Hauraki due soon, Cassie’s working on some other programmes concerning environmental sustainability and Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf, plus she has a busy schedule of TV projects, speaking engagements, coaching and hosting.
Empowering women through First Movers
She and her Aussie business partner have also recently launched First Movers, a new initiative empowering women to build confidence and resilience, helping them actively shape the world around them as employees, business owners or leaders.
Supporting each other through it all
Māia reveals, “We’re super-proud of each other and lift each other up. I’m not saying we don’t have hard times, but we intentionally love each other and always have each other’s backs, which is so important with all the things we have going on.”
Cassie agrees, “With Māia, I truly know what it’s like to celebrate each other. There’s no competition and no pedestals. We understand each other and the impact we try to have. It’s just so magical to meet the right person, and we can’t wait to call each other wife and wife!”
