Deciding to marry someone after just 12 weeks might sound like a reckless gamble. But for The Hits Days radio host Hayley Bath, it turned out to be the safest bet she’s ever made. A decade later, with three children, countless memories and plenty of laughter between them, she and her husband Chris are as smitten as ever.
“We’re still crazy for each other and pine after each other when one of us goes away,” she smiles.
“He’s so genuine and lovely, and we became best friends. We thought, ‘Let’s go for it and hope it works out.’ And it did!”
Rugby sparks romance
At the end of 2014, Hayley went to watch a rugby game at a friend’s house, not knowing she was about to meet the man of her dreams. She casually asked a mate what the devices on the backs of the players’ jerseys were, when a handsome British chap chimed in to explain that they were GPS trackers.
She laughs, “Chris told me a year later he’d been looking at me all night, trying to find a way into the conversation. When he heard me ask the question, he quickly googled it and then slid in.”
‘If my pub quiz team beats yours, I get to take you out on a date!’
Over the following weeks, they kept bumping into each other through mutual friends. Chris, a 43-year-old builder, found out Hayley was joining a quiz fundraiser, so he got himself onto a team just to make her a wager.
Pub quiz turns into a first date
“He said, ‘If my pub quiz team beats yours, I get to take you out on a date,’” Hayley recalls.
“So I said, ‘If my team wins, you have to build me a canvas.’ My team thrashed his and he asked me on a date, but I never got my canvas!”
Their chemistry was instant and after three months, they decided to make things official, and became engaged and married 12 weeks later. Chris’ family was about to return to the UK for six months and they didn’t want to wait. So they quickly organised a backyard wedding at Hayley’s family home in Pukekohe.
Their romance was such a whirlwind that many friends met her new spouse for the first time at the wedding. Plenty assumed there must be a baby on the way. But Hayley says both sets of parents were supportive from the start.
Winning dad’s approval
“I said to my dad, ‘What would you think if Chris and I got married?’ And we’d only been dating for eight weeks. He was like, ‘I was actually thinking you guys were perfect for each other, but I didn’t want to say anything.’”
Now they’re parents to daughter Charli, six, plus twin boys Jules and Beau, four, and Hayley admits she sometimes wonders how she’d react if her children followed her example.
“I would hope that I would be understanding,” she says.
“I know it’s crazy, but I’ve seen us work. But I think it would freak me out. I can’t believe our parents weren’t.”
Chasing sunshine in Tauranga
After calling Wellington home for the past seven years, Hayley and Chris recently packed up and moved to Tauranga in search of warmer weather and more quality time with loved ones, and where Hayley continues her broadcasting role from a new studio.
The 34-year-old first studied radio in Tauranga when they were newly married, living there for just six months. The sunny city stayed in their hearts, but life – and Chris’ growing building business – kept them away until this year, when they finally made the leap.
When they took the kids for a visit, the decision became even easier.
“We came here at Easter, and we showed them around Tauranga and the Mount, and there’s an amazing playground on the waterfront. They were the ones who were like, ‘Can we move here? We want to come here every day!’”
A bittersweet goodbye
The move meant selling the house in which they had brought all three children home from the hospital and watched them take their first steps. Still, Hayley says the excitement of the life ahead far outweighs the sadness of leaving.
“It was bittersweet,” she admits.
“But the future that we could see for ourselves and being closer to our family was greater than the pull of leaving the home we had.”
Now, as the warmer weather arrives, the family is eager to embrace every adventure their new cityhas in store.
“We want to make the most of this beautiful place we’re in,” enthuses Hayley.
“We’re already planning a trip to the redwoods in Rotorua and we want to do some bike trails. “We’re now in a season where we want to pursue delight, and make the most of this age where the kids still want to hang out with us and they still adore us.”
Listen to Hayley weekdays from 9am-3pm on The Hits Days show.
