Babiche Martens
Double Parked star Antonia Prebble is a master of multitasking. She happily shares the details about her upcoming wedding while simultaneously entertaining her two-year-old son Gus, who is draped across her legs, and having her hair and makeup done for our photoshoot.
The stunning actress (who played Loretta West in Outrageous Fortune and Loretta’s grandmother Rita in Westside) has been engaged to her Westside series co-star Dan Musgrove since 2018, but two children, a devastating house fire and a pandemic have conspired to prevent the pair from tying the knot. So after seven years together, Antonia is naturally very excited to have set a date.
When Woman’s Day asks her about it, Gus perks up. “I want a date!” he exclaims.
Laughing, Antonia obliges with some dried fruit, gives Gus a snuggle and goes back to explaining why she’s finally walking down the aisle in 2024.
“This is probably our third attempt at getting married,” she admits. “Earlier last year, we went and looked at quite a few different venues to start thinking about it, but that was as far as we got – it just felt too overwhelming!”
At the time, she had been working constantly – she finished up on the drama Safe Home in Melbourne before launching straight into a starring role in Auckland Theatre Company’s North By Northwest. Then she juggled the role of killer cult leader Rebekah on Shortland Street with playing an expectant mum on the comedy Double Parked, for which she won Best Actress at the 2023 New Zealand Television Awards.
Local show Double Parked is bringing the laughs.
Understandably, Antonia, 39, decided to take a break before filming the second season of Double Parked next month. “I had some time off and for the first time since before the kids, I had the bandwidth to think about a wedding,” she explains.
“One night, I couldn’t sleep for some reason and I just suddenly decided we needed to set the date. The next day, I went to a bridal store to discuss a wedding dress! I got home and said to Dan, ‘Guess what I did today! I went to a wedding dress shop. We need to get married!’ He was like, ‘What? Where did this come from?'”
Dan, 41, was surprised but delighted by the turn of events.
“It was almost like being proposed to!” he grins broadly.
“I did the proposing the first time around, but this was a proposal of sorts. It was great. I said yes immediately. Of course, about five minutes later, I was like, ‘Hang on, it’s a big wedding – that’s quite a bit to organise’. But Antonia has taken on the lion’s share of the planning. Once we pushed go, she dove in and got everything sorted.”
He said yes! For Dan, nailing a date with his longtime fiancée “felt like a proposal”.
Despite their lengthy engagement, both Antonia and Dan are absolutely fizzing about the big day.
“I feel like the luckiest man in the world to be marrying Antonia,” he enthuses. “She’s just my favourite person. Wildly talented, deep-thinking, and incredibly generous and supportive too. We’ve got two kids together, so we’re in a partnership and fully committed to each other already, but it feels like a nice natural step celebrating that in front of our family.”
Adds Antonia, “He is an extremely intelligent and talented person who is already doing such great things, but I also feel like he is only just getting started! I’m really excited to be alongside him and have a front-row seat to all the amazing things I know he will achieve. I feel like, at the core of all of us, we just want to be seen, understood and loved for who we are, and I really feel that I am from him. It’s really lovely to know that we get to do this forever.”
In a full-on year, getting hitched will be the pair’s most exciting project!
Antonia comes from a big family – her mother Nicky is one of seven and her dad John is one of six – so it was never going to be a small wedding, but the fact that most of her cousins are able to attend is another aspect of the nuptials that makes Antonia particularly happy.
“Because Dan and I are getting married a bit later in life, our wedding will be the first really big family gathering in quite a few years, so that also makes it really special,” she shares. “Mum and Dad are so excited.”
Dan agrees, “I never really considered how important that element is. I’m not against weddings at all, but it just hadn’t landed for me how good it’s going to be having all of the people we love together at one time.”
Dan says his parents, Christina MacKay and Bill Musgrove, are also over the moon that the pair are finally making things official.
“They adore Antonia and it will be really lovely to just have that day to celebrate the two of us. My mum is a wedding celebrant, so she’s particularly excited about seeing our one!”
The happy couple has kept the bridal party all in the family – Dan’s cousin Matthew Sutherland, who he grew up with in Marlborough, is one groomsman and Antonia’s brother Ben Prebble is the other. Antonia’s bridesmaids are her sister Becky Prebble and Dan’s sister Sophie Musgrove.
“It just felt right for us,” says Dan. “The day is about a joining of two families and we also have a huge group of friends! Some of them will be giving speeches, so it’s not just the bridal party.”
Antonia and Dan’s two adorable children, Freddie and Gus, will also play a role in the ceremony. “The idea is that they’ll be page boys alongside my sister’s children Reggie and Roly,” says Antonia. “But we’re very cognisant of the fact that we will have a four-year-old and a two-year-old there on the day, so ultimately whatever happens will happen and we’re just going to go with the flow!”
Adds Dan, “It will be interesting to see whether they bomb the ceremony. Probably hard to avoid, I think. But we feel really lucky they’re going to be there. Both Freddie and Gus love our friends, so they’re going to be in absolute heaven running around there with all of them.”
With the bulk of the wedding organisation behind them, the couple have been relaxing over the holidays with family. “Every year we do a three-part hop,” Antonia tells. “Because I live in a different city to my parents and my sister, and my brother lives in Los Angeles, there aren’t many opportunities to see each other. We decided a few years ago that that time of year would be for family.”
After a week in Wellington, the full-on whānau celebrated Christmas in the Marlborough Sounds, where Dan’s parents have a beach house. Then it was on to Abel Tasman, where Antonia’s family has a bach.
“The boys love swimming in the sea. This might be Gus’ first year swimming in the Marlborough Sounds – it was a bit cold last time!”
The pair are both keen to make the most of the summer holidays before an action-packed 2024. As well as Double Parked, Antonia is releasing another season of her podcast What Matters Most with clinical psychologist Jacqui Maguire. Plus, she and Dan also have three television shows in development.
“They’re bubbling away at different stages,” says Antonia. “But we’re hopeful that one of them will come to fruition at some point. With the wedding as well, it’s shaping up to be quite a busy 2024. So we’ll definitely be enjoying the holiday downtime!”
