Photography: Glenn Manchester
They may have become known to New Zealand as “the Mole” and “the Bikini Girl” due to two viral headlines from different corners of the internet, but for newlyweds Yvie and Daryl Habraken, those labels feel like funny little footnotes in a bigger love story.
“It’s hilarious when you think about it,” laughs Yvie, 33.
“Mum joked about it as soon as we were engaged – ‘the Mole marries the Bikini Girl!’”
For Daryl, 47, the nickname came courtesy of his appearance as Dr Lesina Nakhid-Schuster’s undercover “mole” on The Bachelorette NZ in 2020. Yvie, meanwhile, unexpectedly found herself making international headlines in 2019 after being asked to leave a swimming pool over a bikini deemed “inappropriate”.
She recalls, “I had Fox News calling me, The Sun in the UK and media from Europe. It went crazy overnight. People were saying horrible things.”
From disappearing to disrupting
Rather than lean into the attention, Yvie disappeared from the spotlight entirely and “just went bush for a while”.
For Daryl, his experience with fame came with its own strange twists. Initially reluctant to take part in The Bachelorette, he only agreed to appear on the show after producers explained he would play a “disruptor”.
“I hate reality TV,” laughs Daryl, who recently announced he’s standing as a candidate for New Zealand First in Auckland’s Northcote electorate.
“But they said, ‘You’ll be the mole – the eyes and ears for the audience.’ And I thought, ‘OK, that could be fun.’”
From friendship to love
Ironically, their public personas had little to do with their relationship blossoming. The pair had met years earlier, while working on an ad together – Yvie was producing and Daryl auditioned for the role of a plumber – but both were in relationships at the time.
However, the genuine friendship they struck up on set slowly deepened as they chatted online during Covid lockdowns and, by 2022, they were officially together.
Today, the couple runs content creation company Odd Socks Productions from their Auckland home, combining Daryl’s background in directing, cinematography and editing with Yvie’s experience in producing, presenting and acting.
The proposal she never saw coming
The deep bond they share became even more obvious during Daryl’s unforgettable proposal last November. After secretly carrying an engagement ring around for days while on holiday in Melbourne, he finally seized his opportunity while Yvie lay in bed, recovering from whooping cough.
“I was so sick,” laughs Yvie.
“I just wanted to sleep and Daryl kept saying, ‘Let’s do something romantic!’”
Realising there was never going to be a perfect moment, he climbed into bed beside her and whispered, “Would you like to get married?”
Yvie recalls, “I was completely shocked. I just stared at him and said, ‘Where the heck did you get that ring?!’”
A wedding steeped in family history
Engaged for just four months, the pair married in March in an intimate ceremony at a historic stone chapel in Papakura, surrounded by 50 close friends and family.
“It was honestly perfect,” says Yvie.
“The whole day felt ethereal, like I was watching a memory happen in real time.”
The venue carried extraordinary significance for both families. Daryl had been christened there as a baby, while Yvie’s great-great-grandfather helped split the stones used to build the church in the 1800s. Yvie’s grandparents had also married there in 1949.
Building their future together
The couple handcrafted each other’s wedding bands themselves on a jewellery-making workshop, while Yvie sourced her secondhand Grace Loves Lace gown online.
Now settling into married life, the pair is already well into creating their future – Yvie is due to give birth to their first child in February.
Coincidentally, Yvie suspected she was pregnant just as the couple was about to head to Tauranga to attend another wedding.
She shares, “I was a littlelate, so I took a test and there was a very faint line. I started shaking, ran downstairs and asked Daryl, ‘How would you interpret this?’ and he said, ‘Baby’s having babies!’”
Beyond the headlines
They confirmed the happy news with their doctor the following week.
Yvie laughs, “We were planning on trying for a baby later in the year, but I guess someone had other plans. It came as a complete surprise.”
It’s been such a whirlwind, the newlyweds haven’t had a honeymoon yet.
“It’s going to be more of a babymoon at the rate this year is going!” jokes Yvie.
Both agree life today feels very different from the headlines that once defined them publicly.
“The funny thing is, we’ll probably always be the Mole and the Bikini Girl to some people,” smiles Yvie.
“But now we just get to be us.”
