Sprawled on a faux fur rug, his silver locks glistening in the light as our photographer coos instructions on how to gently move this way and that, Gary McCormick is a man who knows his time has come.
“I’ve always been a child of destiny,” grins the More FM morning host. “I sensed from an early age – around four – that one day I would be New Zealand’s hunk of the year. I’m a bit surprised that it didn’t happen earlier, but it was in my DNA.”
He might be a 66-year-old father-of-five who refuses to set foot inside a gym or let even a dab of face cream touch his cheeks, but Gary has taken out the bitterly contested Woman’s Day title of Hottest Radio Hunk and he’s relishing every moment of his new sex-symbol status.
“The time of the older man has come!” the beloved Christchurch jock crows. “And now that, sadly, Burt Reynolds has gone, I have moved into that position.”
Gary wasn’t the slightest bit shocked to learn he’d won the competition, in which he was pitted against whipper-snapper DJs as young as 27, and he has nothing but pity for Robert Scott, 52, from The Breeze, who went all-out to win with an “I’m too Sexy” music video and even a calendar shoot.
“I feel sorry for Robert,” says Gary. “He may not realise it, but he’s always looked up to me. But he’s gone off the rails! I’m going to get him into rehab so he can come to terms with himself. He needs to find his inner Burt.”
Hot on the heels of being told he was officially radio’s sexiest beast, Gary found himself unbuttoning his shirt for his first photo shoot as stallion of the airwaves and was thrilled with the result.
“I was disappointed that there wasn’t a naked centrefold – I got my bear-skin rug and unrolled it in anticipation,” he quips. “But there are some photos that are dangerously close to that. A lot of women are going to find it hard to put the magazine down!”
Certainly one woman who finds our Gazza irresistible is his wife, communications consultant Katherine Cottier, 44. The pair met around 20 years ago, when Gary was hired to speak at a Wellington conference. Katherine was the event organiser and after snaffling her number, he took her out for dinner.
“She informed me it was definitely a platonic relationship,” laughs Gary.
“Then a couple of months later, it turned out she did fancy me after all! She called and said, ‘Why haven’t you phoned me?’ I said, ‘I thought we were having a platonic relationship!’ I guess the old Burt Reynolds charm thing came through.”
One of the first things Gary noticed about his future wife was her “lovely, gorgeous, kind smile”, while Katherine was struck by his wit and fierce intelligence – “the same things that still strike me today”, she tells.
The pair are parents to three daughters, identical twins Florence and Bridie, seven, and Evelyn, six. Also a father to Celeste and Mary, both in their late 20s, from an earlier marriage, Gary has taken to being an older dad as enthusiastically as he’s taken to being a sexagenarian sex symbol.
“I refuse to go camping, tramping, cycling, mountain biking, skiing or any of those other tedious things people do and the girls understand that,” he says. “I’m great on books. I also make up stories for them. That’s my area of expertise and we all love it.”
Gary’s in charge of evening meals –”roast chicken or sausages, spuds and frozen peas” – which is followed by a concert from the girls.
“We’re in bed by 7.30pm. I tell them a story or they read me one, in which case I will go to sleep first, so I’m right for getting up at 4.15am!”
Despite Gary’s new hunk-of-the-year status, Katherine says she still expects him to empty the dishwasher and clean the loo.
Gary jokes, “I think a little more respect would be good instead of saying, ‘Pick up that,’ or, ‘Cook the dinner.’ As is often the case when you’ve got an Adonis for a husband, some women take it for granted.
“She has sent me a couple of emails that start off, ‘Dear Hunk’, though, so you can’t ask for more than that!”
