For The Edge radio host Nickson Clark, the fact he’s been married for 10 years is simply astonishing. But it simply sounds like fate when he talks about the first moment he met his future wife, Sarah, while she was dressed in a full bridal outfit, including a veil, for an on-air promotion.
“And yet we didn’t hit it off!” Sarah laughs. “It was a year later, at work again, where we finally talked.”
“I remember meeting him again and thinking. ‘Wow! This guy is so busy, he must be top management – he’s always walking around. I realised later he was walking around because he actually wasn’t that busy!”
They went on to get engaged in the pages of Woman’s Day – we published a photo of Nickson down on one knee, holding a sign asking, “Will you marry me?” – and now they’re about to celebrate 10 years together with a romantic trip to their honeymoon destination, Hawai’i.
‘I want to thank Woman’s Day for making this love happen’
It’s been a decade of ups and downs for Nickson, 37, and Sarah, 33.
“It’s nuts that it’s been 10 years – people thought we were very young when we got married and kept asking us if we were sure,” Sarah recalls. “We got engaged quite quickly, after a year of dating, and then married a year later. It sounds so clichéd, but when you know, you really know. We knew.”
“Before I met Sarah, I was really flying solo,” adds Nickson. “I was never an angry person or anything, but Sarah has helped me be calmer and realise that you have to pick your battles. Now I’m always thinking, ‘WWSD – what would Sarah do?'”
“And I’ve definitely become a lot more confident since being with you,” nods Sarah, who also works in radio. “I speak up for myself now.”
It seems like both a lifetime ago and just yesterday since the couple exchanged vows at Auckland’s St Matthew-in-the-City, where Sarah performed a traditional Siva Samoa dance.
Nickson remembers feeling “broken” when he first saw his beautiful bride walk down the aisle. “She was just so, so beautiful,” he smiles. “I just remember feeling like I’d won Lotto.”
“I felt like I’d won Lotto,” recalls Nickson.
In the past 10 years, the pair have changed jobs, renovated houses and even taken on side hustles – a big fan of perfectly manicured lawns, Nickson has just decided to become a greenkeeper, in addition to his gig on The Edge Afternoons with co-hosts Sharyn Casey and Steph Monks.
With him having recently made the shift from the station’s breakfast show, the pair say their work-life balance is the best it’s ever been.
“The change came at the right time,” admits Nickson. “I was getting tired. Now we can talk at night, I see her at work and we have the mornings too. We have so much more quality time.”
“It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen Nickson in terms of the lifestyle,” adds Sarah. “And how good is it that we get a date night on a Sunday now?”
The secret to their strong relationship, they reckon, just comes down to communication and remaining independent.
Nickson explains, “We have these amazing dreams and aspirations, both together and separately. We share them when we’re at home, then we’re off doing our own things. We have that room to grow individually, then we come together and debrief every afternoon.
From proposing in Woman’s Day to having fur baby Billie, Nickson and Sarah are still besotted.
“Sarah has supported me throughout my whole career. Now I want to get to the point – and I’m getting there very quickly – where it’s Sarah’s turn. I want to be fully invested and if we’re blessed enough to have a baby, I don’t want her to feel like all that burden is on her.”
The couple’s journey to parenthood hasn’t been straightforward. They’ve been trying for a few years with no luck and have just started investigating other options through Fertility Associates.
“It’s really exciting,” says Sarah. “But I really feel like we’ve created a lifestyle where if it didn’t happen, we’d still be very happy.
“Our priority has always been each other and it’s about being each other’s biggest cheerleaders. We’ll get through this journey either way – I don’t want it to define our relationship.”
And it really is quite a union, with the pair saying they fall more in love each day.
“We’re the true definition of opposites attracting,” smiles Nickson. “There’s nothing that I don’t love about Sarah. I love that I have someone who wholly, truly has my back and I love being the person who has hers.
“Always knowing that there’s someone to come home to and cuddle is the best feeling in the world. And I want to thank Woman’s Day for helping to make this love happen – holding that sign in that photo was the scariest thing in the world, but look at us now!”
You can catch Sharyn, Steph and Nickson on The Edge Afternoons from 3pm weekdays.
