Our top 25 Kiwi moments of 2025: Love, family & big life wins

Megan Alatini’s show-stopping Auckland nuptials were a big, beautiful, multicultural celebration of the love she shares with police sergeant Natalie McDade. The TrueBliss singer, 48, told Woman’s Day, “Because it was my second wedding, I initially wanted something a bit casual and I wasn’t sure if I’d wear white, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought, ‘Bugger it. I’m just going to go the full shebang!’”

Of making their relationship official, Megan added, “I love that we can bloody sing it from the rooftops.”

In the States when she found out she was pregnant, Kimberley Crossman kept her big news secret from husband Tom Walsh until she could tell him in person.

“He was in New Zealand working and we were going to be together again in six days’ time,” revealed the former Shortland Street actress, 35.

“Still, it was difficult holding it in – I kept having to cut short our conversations!”

The pair welcomed their “perfect daughter” Coco Joan on the 6th of December, which Kim calls “the best and biggest day of my life”.

After months of anxious waiting, love triumphed for Jay-Jay Feeney and her Algerian boyfriend Minou, who finally got a visa allowing him to stay in New Zealand for a year.

In September, our 51-year-old columnist announced the good news: “He can get a job, pay his way, cover the bills, and save up to visit home!”

Minou, 33, said, “I’m really happy. I love the culture here, the beautiful nature and the people, who are so kind.”

Revealing she’d become the joint owner of the BNZ Kāhu women’s basketball squad, Olympic kayaking legend Dame Lisa Carrington, 36, told us, “Basketball’s a totally new thing for me and I’m super-excited to be involved. I never thought I’d own a sports team, but it’s an awesome opportunity to invest in women. And with the background that I have, it’s exciting to see how I can contribute too.”

After a shock cheating scandal on Married At First Sight Australia, controversial stars Jacqui Burfoot and Clint Rice made things official in front of fans when he dropped to one knee at a MAFS screening party.

With plans to tie the knot next March, Kiwi gal Jacqui brought the golfing pro to her family home in Queenstown for an exclusive Woman’s Day shoot, telling us, “We’re actually more excited about starting a family than the wedding. We just want to get the wedding out of the way. We both came from families with three kids, so that’s what we want, but I’m pushing for five!”

Former rugby star Campbell Johnstone made a spectacular entrance in a helicopter piloted by Richie McCaw when he married his partner Ben Thomson in a romantic Canterbury ceremony. However, on the big day, the couple revealed to their guests they’d actually officially tied the knot months earlier on a remote mountain.

“That was really special because we just got to enjoy the day together,” Campbell, 45, told us.

Having been told by doctors that she couldn’t have kids, Kiwi country singer Kaylee Bell is relishing motherhood since the arrival of her “dream baby” James.

“He sleeps really well and is such a good little trouper that he makes everything easy,” Kaylee, 35, told us in July.

“He’s already been to America, Australia, the South Island and Wellington. He’s been to a lot of places and that’s just how we’re going to roll.”

Black Ferns star Amy du Plessis couldn’t believe it when her love Kaleb Talamahina proposed in England, just a week after her World Cup campaign ended due to injury.

Of the big moment, the rugby player, 26, told us, “I didn’t say anything at all to start with. Kaleb had to ask, ‘Are you going to say yes?’ Just before he proposed, he asked a random lady if she could take a photo of us standing at the lookout. He got the whole proposal on film.”

Tinā actress Antonia walked down the aisle with her love Josh Eaton in March – a month after her hit film was released, making her a movie star! Amid the excitement, the 22-year-old somehow found time to grow most of the flowers for her beautiful church wedding in Auckland.

“I have lots of hobbies and gardening is my latest,” she shared with us.

Melbourne-based comedian Melanie Bracewell introduced Woman’s Day to her high school sweetheart Shaun McCullough in March, joking,

“We’re clearly pretending to be in love for the press. This is obviously a PR relationship, so it feels good to get it in print.”

Since our story, 29-year-old Mel has announced their engagement. Congrats, guys!

Four moths before his tragic passing, beloved TV star, author and parenting expert Nigel Latta shared his joy at marrying fellow psychologist Natalie Flyyn.

“To quote SpongeBob SquarePants, it was the best day ever,” he said.

“The truth is, I love Natalie more than anything, but trying to describe that in a bunch of words seems a bit inadequate. It feels much bigger than that.”

Arriving almost two months premature, Nadine Higgins’ son Ari spent his first three weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit and just a few months later, he was back in the hospital battling a serious illness.

He’s fighting like a little warrior.

Nadine, 39, tells us, “It’s been the most intense seven months of my life, but also the most incredible.”

Burying a sausage in the garden before your wedding is an old wives’ tale meant to keep the rain at bay – and it did just that for Black Ferns star Michaela Blyde and her groom, Olympic rowing champion Michael Brake, 30, who tied the knot on a sunny day in Tauranga!

Joking that she was “more nervous than before a game”, ahead of walking down the aisle, Michaela, 29, says she had to tell herself, “It’s just another day, but I’m wearing white instead of black.”

They’re now expecting their first child.

Twenty years after her last radio job and following a traumatic home invasion, Carolyn Taylor is back on the airwaves as a host on The Breeze. With her son Jasper now four, the timing was right for her to get back on the mic.

“He’s my priority,” Carolyn told us last month.

“But now he’s getting older, I have these little blocks of time free during the week and I work at night once he’s in bed.”

As they awaited the birth of their first child, former Black Ferns star Grace Poihipi and her husband, fellow rugby player Rameka, revealed they were also moving to Japan, where he’d signed a new contract.

Now parents to daughter Zahli Mikaere and living in Tokyo, Grace, 27, says, “We’d love her to be sporty, but as long as she’s happy, that’s all that matters.”

Just moments after Erin Simpson and her husband, The Bachelor NZ’s Zac Franich, arrived at Auckland’s North Shore Hospital, their second son Harley Jack made his appearance at a healthy 3.8kg.

“Our family is complete now and I couldn’t be more grateful to have two healthy little boys,” says former children’s TV star Erin, 42 who is also mum to two-year-old Harry.

“They’re my whole world.”

Jess Sayer, the Shortland Street actress, delighted in the magical date night her partner and former co-star Amanda Tito had planned, coming home to tiki torches and a picnic dinner on her front lawn.

And the night got even more romantic when Amanda popped the question, telling us, “I started babbling and couldn’t stop. Jess looked me in the eye and started to coach me through it. When I asked her to be my wife, she said yes!”

There was nothing much traditional about former netballer and Sky Sport presenter Storm Purvis’ wedding in February. The Crowd Goes Wild host’s beau, lawyer Dan Hilton-Jones, traded the usual tux for a terracotta blazer and their celebrations included a “gin trap” hidden in the forest,
plus a food truck serving hawker rolls and dumplings.

“It’s been the best day of my life,” Storm, 31, told us.

Reality TV star Nazanin Khanjani walked down the aisle with London lad Jonny Wilson in January.

“We had the most beautiful, intimate wedding,” Naz, 35, told us.

“We just wanted our closest family with us on our special day.”

After enduring years of hurdles, the newlyweds are now living together in New Zealand, thrilled to begin this new chapter.

In August, TVNZ newsreader Jenny Suo and her partner Michael Walker shared their happy pregnancy news with us. Their healthy wee girl Maisie Xiaoli Walker-Suo was born in September.

After years of heartbreak, fertility struggles and a devastating miscarriage, Jenny told us, “I just feel so incredibly lucky.”

Fatherhood is the finish line for Supercars champ Scott McLaughlin, who proudly told us how he’s “winning for his girls” since the birth of his baby daughter Lucy Violet.

The Kiwi star, 31, helped his wife Karly through a 40-hour labour using his racing skills, telling us, “I was following the monitor next to her hospital bed like it was data on a race-car dashboard!”

After revealing to Woman’s Day that they were expecting their first child, Shortland Street actress Courtenay Louise, 31, and her husband Chris Read were over the moon with the safe arrival of daughter Violet Louise in October.

“When Chris and I met, I didn’t even know how to load a washing machine, so I’ll be making my kids do the dishes, mow the lawn and paint the roof from age three!” Courtenay joked.

Forget roses, bubbly and grand gestures – when Celebrity Treasure Island star Cassie Roma proposed to Football Ferns legend Māia Jackman, it all went down at the top of the stairs, with no distractions.

Cassie, 44, caught Māia, 50, completely off guard. The former athlete told us, “I thought Cassie was kidding to start, but then I realised she was serious!”

Wee girl Francesca Isabel is already making her parents proud. “She’s hitting all her milestones,” House Rules NZ winner Jemma Pasek, 33, told us in March.

“It’s just the smiles she made us wait for. She didn’t smile for the first six months – she just had this really serious look!”

Her dad Alvaro, 35, is also smitten, gushing, “It’s amazing how much joy such a fleeting smile can bring you.”

After wild weather put their big day in jeopardy, journalist Michelle Prendiville and her rugby star husband Marty Banks, 36, tied the knot with a very Kiwi celebration in November in Tauranga. Sparkling in a Hera Couture gown, Michelle, 30, walked down the aisle to a cover of Tina Turner’s The Best.

“I looked up at Marty and I just started crying because it felt like everything I had ever wanted was right there,” she told us.