Photography: Susannah Blatchford.
Rejected, tormented and asked to change during their years spent chasing music, modelling and their Miss Universe dreams, the last thing identical twins Sharaine Francis and Laural Furze expected was that all they had to do to succeed was to just be who they are.
The Kiwi pair is blown away that the true-crime podcast they started for fun, Can’t Handle The Crime And Scandal, has earned thousands of listeners and several awards.
“It’s healing because it’s so authentically us,” says Laural, aka Lollie.
“With everything else, especially music, people make you feel you have to be something other than yourself. With this, the more we’re ourselves, the better it does.”
It’s the tight, life-long bond the 39-year-old sisters share that has given their show a unique twist. As kids, they did everything together, following musician mum Niki Barrett into singing, then modelling.
But by age 15, Sharaine had become involved in a violent relationship. While Laural was protective of her sister – “we tried everything to get her out, but it’s hard when you’re young” – ultimately, Sharaine didn’t leave until she was ready.
Behind the scenes of a dream turning difficult
“I was so young and scared to leave because of the repercussions,” she says.
“I had to do it on my own time. I had to grow up quickly. It was terrible, but I got through it.”
At 18, the two landed a record deal in LA, but things turned “sinister” when an acclaimed producer – who had worked with Destiny’s Child – took a liking to Laural and sent Sharaine packing.
“Then he made his moves, which was terrible,” recalls Laural.
“Today, people wouldn’t get away with what they could back then, but I was young, impressionable and desperate to do music.”
Turning her back on the opportunity, Laural followed Sharaine home and the twins signed with the team behind the Veronicas, only for the label to collapse. Further music opportunities also sprouted, then crumbled.
By 2006, Sharaine had shifted her focus to entering Miss Universe New Zealand, where she placed second. Encouraging her sister to enter the following year, Laural won the crown and headed to Mexico for the world pageant. But what started as a fun adventure was soured by cattiness.
Life after the crown
“My experience at Miss New Zealand was so bad, I almost left,” admits Laural.
“I remember being in the elevator with my crown and it felt like the movies because girls wouldn’t speak to me. I constantly thought, ‘Am I pretty enough to be here?’”
While she didn’t win on the world stage, the pageant led to modelling gigs, plus reality shows like Island Wars and Shock Treatment. Sharaine, meanwhile, had thrown her energy into becoming a mum to daughter Wynter, now 15, at age 24. Although raising her solo was challenging, she has no regrets.
“I’ve done it the right way around because now I’m older, settled, have money, can travel and can go out. And I’ve got my little bestie with me!”
When Wynter was three, the Christchurch-based mum first dated her now-husband Daniel Francis, but the timing wasn’t right.
“Sometimes you just need an eight-year break!” she laughs about their decision to reconnect, then marry in 2023.
Love, marriage and life beyond music
Laural also found love with Aussie musician and actor Mark Furze, who played Ric Dalby on Home And Away, while playing his love interest in a music video shot in Aotearoa.
“I thought there was one kissing scene, then suddenly there were 10,” Laural laughs.
“He kept adding more. He was only in New Zealand for a week and by the time he left, we’d said, ‘I love you’. It was intense!”
From romance to Vegas wedding
Moving to LA, the couple wed at a Las Vegas chapel in 2014, with actor pals like Liam Hemsworth attending. After welcoming daughter Soma, now four, they settled on the Gold Coast, launching
a wedding entertainment company that sees them DJ and perform as a duo.
Living in different countries, Sharaine and Laural’s tight bond continued to flourish and they developed a “potentially unhealthy” habit of calling each other 10 times daily, with the conversation frequently turning to their fascination with true-crime cases.
From conversations to award-winning success
Laural explains, “We’re always like, ‘Did you hear about that one?’ So we decided to record our conversations. The first one was bloody terrible, but it got heaps of downloads. It was just a hobby, but it’s kept growing.”
Two years later, Can’t Handle won three awards, including Best Comedy Podcast, at the 2025 New Zealand Podcast Awards.
“Seeing our name on the winners’ list with The Dom Harvey Podcast and Between Two Beers was wild,” says Laural.
She explains that having full control, as opposed to “trying to fit a mould or being mistreated by men”, has been empowering.
Sharaine agrees, “What’s cool about what we’re doing now is we’re not relying on anyone else. It’s this project we love and show up for, for no other reason than wanting to do it together.”
Listen to Can’t Handle The Crime And Scandal wherever you get your podcasts.
