As a clairvoyant, Deb Webber’s done psychic readings for thousands of people. But until a few years ago, the Sensing Murder star had never done one for her own daughter, Jasmine Wignell-Webber.
However, when newly single Jasmine begged her mum to reveal if she and her beloved ex Tim Humphreys would ever get back together, Deb felt compelled to oblige.
“Jaz was heartbroken,” recalls Deb, 53. “She’d never ever asked me for a reading before, but suddenly every day, she’d ask, ‘Mum, are we going to be together?’ So I did a reading.
Proud parents Deb and Mark lead their girl to her groom.
“I said, ‘You will get back together. I see you getting married. He’s just got to do what he’s got to do – and there will be a third person in the relationship.’”
Fast-forward a few years to October 2016, and Deb couldn’t have been happier as she watched 25-year-old Jasmine and her groom, apprentice carpenter Tim, 30, exchange vows by a sun-dappled creek next to a mango orchard on the Sunshine Coast.
As mother of the bride, the telly medium has been there every step of the way, helping scout out vintage trimmings for the ceremony at Tim’s parents home in Yandina, Queensland. And Deb even volunteered to make the five-tier wedding cake – a pavlova.
“I’d done a trial run, which had gone OK, so I was pretty confident,” recalls Deb. “I made the tiers and figured that during the speeches, before dinner, I would sneak away to whip the cream and put the fruit on top.”
But what she hadn’t factored in was how to transport the finished cake to the reception – in a tepee-filled paddock, which was a five minute walk away – in pitch black darkness. “By the time I got there, it was a bit wonky, but thankfully it was in one piece!”
With her pavlova mission accomplished, Deb and the wedding guests danced the night away, dining on wood-fired pizzas and paella. It was a dream ending to what has been a tough few years for Jasmine and Tim, who got engaged in January 2015.
The lovebirds first met in 2009, when Jasmine, then an 18-year-old barmaid, spied hunky Tim when she was driving home from a late-night shift at the pub.
“He was standing with his back to me,” she giggles. “I just saw this gorgeous mass of curls in a man-bun and a bare torso beneath a high-vis jacket. I wrote my number on a napkin, did a U-turn and said to one of the guys, ‘Can you give this to your colleague with the curly hair?'”
When she finally met Tim face-to-face, Jasmine was instantly smitten and quickly invited him to a family dinner … with a twist! Deb recalls, “I loved Tim as soon as I met him, but I introduced myself as Jaz’s cousin! I thought he wouldn’t be his true self if he knew I was her mum. I came clean at the end of the night. He thought we were a very quirky family!”
A week later, Tim visited again. “I said, ‘If you ever hurt my daughter, I’m gonna kick you in the head,’” laughs Deb. “Given that he’s nearly a foot taller than me, he thought I was joking, but I managed to get my foot close enough to his head to prove my point!”
Although the couple broke up a few months later, Deb’s reunion prediction started to come true when Tim called Jasmine out of the blue several months after the reading.
Deb knew that Jasmine would wed Tim and be stepmum to Riley (pictured) before the bride did!
“He told me he was expecting a child after a fling with an ex,” tells Jasmine. “I was devastated and told him not to contact me again, but he wouldn’t listen. He said he was committed to being a good dad, but that he’d always loved me and he wanted us to be together.”
The situation was “very confusing” for everyone involved, Jasmine reveals. “The first three-and-a-half years were dreadful, but we loved each other so much, we made it through.”
Tim’s daughter Riley, who lives with her mum, was born in 2010 and the doting dad introduced her to Jasmine when she was six months old. Acting as flowergirl, Riley even played a key part in the couple’s wedding ceremony.
Deb was in charge of making the wedding cake – a towering pavlova.
“I’m stepmum to an awesome nearly-six-year-old,” Jasmine marvels. “Obviously, Riley was the third person in Mum’s reading!”
Jasmine and Tim now live down the road from Deb, near Noosa, Australia, and Jasmine is helping her mother – who’s set to return to TVNZ 2’s Sensing Murder in March – run her business.
“It’s going really good so far,” tells Jasmine. “I’ve always believed in her gift, her ability and I love the fact that she knew I was going to marry my husband before I did!”
Pictures: Graham Murray
