In their decade-long romance, Leon Henry has lost count of how many times he’s seen his fiancée Aaradhna Patel perform in concert – but hearing her sing still takes his breath away. “I am completely in awe of her when she performs,” beams professional basketballer Leon. “I freeze up. It’s like I can’t quite believe that it’s my wife to be. I’m Aaradhna’s biggest fan – always have been, always will be.”
But the Kiwi soul singer begs to differ. When she and Leon were introduced by a friend on a night out in Auckland 10 years ago, she recalls the former SkyCity Breakers shooting guard having a lot to say about her music – and it wasn’t all positive!
“I noticed Leon had been eyeing me up from the other side of the bar,” recalls Aaradhna, 32, whose new album Brown Girl recently topped the Kiwi charts. “I even said to my friend, ‘Jeez, that guy’s been hard-out smiling all night.’
“When our mutual friend left the bar early, Leon and another mate ended up driving us home. On the way there, he said to me, ‘I saw one of your performances on TV and, to be honest, I think you could’ve done better.’
“Then he asked for my number. He was so confident. You never forget a guy that disses your music!” Memorable maybe. But likeable? Not at first. Aaradhna had just broken into the music industry at the time and thought a love interest would be a distraction, but the strapping sportsman persisted.
“I didn’t care how keen I looked,” remembers Leon, 30, who recently finished a season in Queensland with the Townsville Crocodiles. “As we pulled out of her driveway, I called Aaradhna straight away to check she hadn’t given me a fake number.
“We texted every day for about two weeks until she agreed to chat and that phone call changed everything. I called her at 10pm and we got off the phone at 7am. We literally talked all night and connected on so many levels.”
For their first date, Leon took Aaradhna on a drive to all his favourite spots around Auckland, including a pungent sewage pond. He smiles, “No-one in their right mind would take a girl there, but I wanted to make her laugh.”
In the years that followed, the couple’s passions took them around the world, with stints living in Hollywood (for her career), Romania (for his) and Australia, where Leon popped the question last September. But now they’re happily based back in Auckland.
Leon says, “We are living the best days of our lives. We are so happy and in such a good space right now in our relationship. Aaradhna’s career is blowing up, and we’re soon going to be husband and wife. I feel like the luckiest man in the world.”
However, only two years ago, Leon came scarily close to losing Aaradhna and the wonderful life they’d built together. In 2014, the couple of eight years mutually agreed to call time on their romance.
“After being together for so long, we got too complacent,” explains Aaradhna. “We forgot how to love each other and invest in our relationship. We got too comfortable and that’s where we went wrong.
“We split up for about eight months and even though the separation hit us both so hard, it opened our eyes to how much we love and support each other.” Adds Leon, “Not having my best friend by my side was horrible. I knew I could never lose Aaradhna again and that’s where the proposal came about.”
Explaining he popped the question atop Townsville’s Castle Hill – his favourite lookout – Aaron recalls, “I had to prove my love for her. I’d dreamt of having Aaradhna as my wife and the mother of my beautiful children, so I knew it was the right time.”
So far as wedding plans go, with the release of Aaradhna’s album and Leon’s recent return from Aussie, they haven’t made much progress. The Indian-Samoan singer and the athlete – who is of Samoan, Niuean and Cook Island descent – toyed with the idea of an island wedding or a traditional Indian affair, but after their preliminary invite list reached almost 200 guests, they’ve decided to tie the knot on home soil.
“As much as it’s our day, we’d rather have everyone we love there,” says Aaradhna. “And walking down the aisle towards my husband will be amazing no matter where we are.”
In their decade-long romance, Leon Henry has lost count of how many times he’s seen his fiancée Aaradhna Patel perform in concert – but hearing her sing still takes his breath away, he reveals.
“I am completely in awe of her when she performs,” beams professional basketballer Leon.
Aaradhna – whose new album Brown Girl recently topped the Kiwi charts – first met Leon on a night out in Auckland 10 years ago.
“I noticed Leon had been eyeing me up from the other side of the bar,” recalls Aaradhna, 32. He asked for her number that same night, and the two were soon inseparable.
In the years that followed, the couple’s passions took them around the world, with stints living in Hollywood (for her career), Romania (for his) and Australia, where Leon popped the question last September.
“We are living the best days of our lives. We are so happy and in such a good space right now in our relationship,” gushes Leon.
However, only two years ago, Leon came scarily close to losing Aaradhna and the wonderful life they’d built together. In 2014, the couple of eight years mutually agreed to call time on their romance.
“After being together for so long, we got too complacent,” explains Aaradhna. “We forgot how to love each other and invest in our relationship. We got too comfortable and that’s where we went wrong.”
“We split up for about eight months and even though the separation hit us both so hard, it opened our eyes to how much we love and support each other,” she reveals.
Adds Leon, “We split up for about eight months and even though the separation hit us both so hard, it opened our eyes to how much we love and support each other.”
