When Woman’s Day gives Sky Sport presenter Kirstie Stanway-Thorne a call, she answers the phone with a slight manic edge to her voice that is very indicative of the fact she’s a mum to two kids under two.
“It’s beautiful chaos here at the moment!” she laughs.
“Well, it’s beautiful chaos all the time, to be fair. People think we’re crazy, and it is so wild and chaotic, but every day brings beautiful moments that remind me I’m exactly where I need to be.”
Since she and her husband Gareth welcomed their gorgeous second son Luca Te Raukura in June 2025, Kirstie, 33, says she has no idea how they’ve managed to keep it all together, juggling Luca, his 20-month-old brother Bowie and returning to work as a rugby presenter at Sky.
“I really don’t know how I survived,” she says matter- of-factly.
“It’s hard to find time to pause and take in just how intense it all is.”
But through all of the mayhem of having two kids so close in age, she’s thankful for her two beautiful bubs – even if she is very, very over changing nappies!
“The flipside of the coin is that I don’t think I would have wanted to go back to the nappies and the sleepless nights if we had a big age gap, so it’s all worth it and now we’re just seeing it pay off. “The boys have the cutest relationship. Bowie will put his arm around Luca for a kiss and a cuddle, and they look at books together. I see that and think, ‘This is why we did it.’ They’re going to be best mates.”
Welcoming Luca to the whānau
Luca – whose middle name is for his great-great-grandfather Tiki Te Raukura – has been the perfect addition to the Stanway-Thorne whānau. The opposite of his big brother in temperament, he’s so far been an easy, calm baby.
“He’s the most chill little darling,” tells Kirstie, who’s of Ngāti Porou descent.
Early nights and a growing personality
“From six weeks, he was sleeping through the night – thank God! – and he’s so different to Bowie in every way. Bowie runs around the house yelling, ‘Go, go, go!’ “He’s full of beans and he’s the best, but two of those? No, thanks! Although now Luca’s six months and his personality is starting to shine through, we do wonder if we might have spoken too soon.”
While Luca might be a breezy baby, Kirstie’s pregnancy wasn’t so easy. She says it was a lot harder the second time around.
Life with a toddler at home
“Obviously having a toddler running around to look after doesn’t help!” Kirstie tells.
“But I also think my body hadn’t recovered from the emergency Caesarean I had to have with Bowie, which was quite traumatic. “I had to have a planned C-section this time, which was a different kind of emotional. I burst into tears walking into that room because I just couldn’t help but think, ‘This isn’t how giving birth is supposed to be.’ Then people tell you that having a Caesarean is the easy option?! I can’t believe it when I hear that. But, of course, it was all worth it – we adored Luca from the first second we saw him.”
The boys’ life is an idyllic one – a new renovated home in Mount Maunganui, where they’re close to the beach, the family’s happy place, and surrounded by cousins close in age. But Kirstie is frank in admitting that “having it all” is hard yakka on all fronts. Asked how their marriage has fared, both she and Gareth, 41, laugh.
The strain of two under two
Kirstie says, “Oh, it’s definitely not been easy! Two under two puts a huge strain on your relationship because you never spend any time together. We went from spending pretty much every waking moment together, doing whatever we wanted and having all this freedom, to caring for two children who need so much. “It’s exhausting. We’re so sleep-deprived, we often don’t eat properly and we’re in the trenches. But we do see light at the end of the tunnel and Gareth truly is the absolute best. He’s a wonderful husband and an amazing dad, and he’s so supportive with me working and heading up to Auckland as much as I do.”
It was due to Gareth’s incredible support that Kirstie felt she could say yes to the professional opportunity of a lifetime – heading to Milan next month to helm Sky Sport’s Winter Olympic Games coverage. It’s a gig she’s always wanted and while she’s fizzing with excitement, the decision to go was one of the hardest of her life.
“All of my working years, I’d dreamed about this, but things are different when you have two children and a husband to think about,” confesses Kirstie.
Making it work for the family
“But we talked about it for a long time and we decided that we can make it work. It’s going to be harder on me than on my boys, I know! And I’ve always wanted my kids to see me chase my dreams,
so they know that they can chase theirs too.”
While the TV star is still incredibly passionate about her work, she admits that her perspective on her career has changed since becoming a mum.
“I want to spend as much time with my children as I can and that’s all my heart ever tells me,” says Kirstie.
“I have my dream job and before I had kids, I never thought there was anything that’d ever make me think of giving it up. “But the day I had Bowie, I knew that I’d give it up in a heartbeat if I had to. I’m lucky I don’t have to and that I love, love my job – and right now it’s working. I’m so lucky for that.”
