It wasn’t quite the reaction actor Paolo Rotondo expected. With a diamond engagement ring concealed in his bag and mentally prepared to propose to the mother of his child, he casually suggested a side trip from Naples, where the family was staying during a two-month European trip, to the Amalfi Coast.
“He told me it was really romantic there and that I’d love it,” recalls Renee Mark (36), as the couple’s cute 17-month-old daughter Sofia crosses the living room on wobbly feet. “So I asked, ‘Have you been there before?’ and he said, ‘Yes.'” Then I asked, ‘Have you taken other girlfriends there?’ and he replied, ‘Well, yes, I have.'”
“For some reason, I got really angry. I asked him, ‘What are you thinking, taking me to a place where you’ve taken other girls before? How romantic do you think that’s going to be for me?,'” Renee giggles. “So poor Paolo had to change his plans – and we went to the island of Capri instead.”
Renee had no idea Paolo (38) was planning a proposal. “I would have behaved better had I known!” she laughs. So when he dropped to one knee at dusk, on a balcony overlooking the oediterranean, she burst into tears of surprise and delight, and immediately told him, “Yes, of course I’ll marry you!”
Paolo had recently completed a two-week fellowship with the Globe Theatre in London and when Renee – who works for Te Paepae Ataata: The Maori Film Commission – flew over with Sofia to join him, he already knew that he wanted to marry her. “In fact,” says the former Shortland Street star, “I’d already asked Renee’s dad for her hand.”
Although Renee almost scuttled that plan too. Paolo tried many times to find a reason to make the trip from Auckland, where the family is based, to Hastings, where Renee’s father lives. “I would say, ‘Let’s go and visit your dad!’ and Renee would say, ‘No, we don’t have time.’ Nothing I could do would get us there – and I needed to have this korero urgently! In the end I had to ring him, and he was really chuffed that I had thought to speak with him first.”
once in London, Paolo headed for the trendy suburb of Notting Hill, where curiosity shops and antique stores jostle for space. There, he found an elegant 1940s rose gold ring with a simple solitaire diamond just perfect for Renee. Paolo, Renee and Sofia then flew to Italy, Paolo’s birthplace, taking in the sights of Rome and Naples and introducing Sofia to “a million aunties!” But when they spoke of their intention to baptise their daughter into the Catholic faith, the rellies went into a spin. Paolo and Renee were not yet wed and a baptism wasn’t possible.
“It was really disappointing,” Paolo says, “because it hadn’t occurred to us that our unmarried status would be a problem. The irony of the whole situation was that the whole time I had this ring in my hot little hand – it was like the world was telling me that I needed to be married!”
A luxurious resort on Capri proved the perfect spot for the job. “It was very romantic,” says Paolo. “I’d always spoken about how marriage wasn’t my cup of tea, and I guess it wasn’t, until I found the right moment and the right person.”
But there was another surprise in store for the happy couple. After they returned home to New Zealand, Renee was unable to shake her jet lag and, when nausea set in, she suspected she was pregnant. Laughing, Renee says despite a positive home pregnancy test, she was firmly in denial. “I just couldn’t believe it – I was still breastfeeding!” she explains.
A little brother or sister for Sofia is due in a few weeks’ time and now that the shock has worn off, Paolo and Renee are thrilled. “People tell us that it’s hard to begin with, having two so close in age, but that it’s the best thing in the world too, because they can play together,” smiles Paolo.
And once Numero Rua, as baby number two is affectionately known, is a bit bigger, there will be a wedding to plan. “Waiheke Island for the ceremony and Italy for the honeymoon,” Paolo predicts. “A little bit Maori and some Italian
