Love Stories

When Emma Chow and Enzo Lisbona first met, they had no idea just how much life would ask of them. Married for 11 years and parents to two young boys, their relationship has been built on friendship, laughter and a deep commitment to each other. 

But when Enzo was diagnosed with kidney disease, their future suddenly became uncertain. As his kidney function deteriorated and he was told he would need a transplant, Emma made the extraordinary decision to put herself forward as a living donor. Then came the news they had been hoping for: she was a match. 

This episode discusses mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder and perinatal loss. Support: Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7) | Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 (24/7) | PANDA 1300 726 306 (perinatal mental health support). 

When Heather Morris met Holocaust survivor Lale Sokolov, she made him a promise: she would never stop trying to tell his story. That promise would eventually lead to The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the bestselling novel that changed her life. 

On this episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories, Heather joins Tiffany Dunk for a deeply moving conversation about the many forms love can take. She reflects on growing up in rural New Zealand, the...

Pia Miranda and Janine Allis went onto Australian Survivor with very different plans: Pia was determined to win, while Janine was looking for an adventure. Neither expected to find a lifelong best friend along the way. 

After spending around 50 days together without phones, TV or the usual comforts of life, the pair formed an extraordinary bond; one built on humour, honesty, and complete trust.  

Now, seven years after Survivor, Pia and Janine join Tiffany Dunk to talk about the friendship that changed how they see themselves, why they believe true friends should make you the best...

Tegan Higginbotham and Paul Verhoeven's love story began with a very unusual first date: a lingerie football game, followed by a birthday party and their first kiss outside a drag bar. 

Now married, the comedy creators join Tiffany Dunk to talk about their Paris wedding, the proposal almost derailed by a Cornish pasty, the ducks that interrupted their ceremony, and how they navigate working together on Stan's new comedy series, Gnomes. 

They also share what they've learned about love, laughter, communication, and keeping a relationship strong through the highs and lows of two careers in en...

Shaun Micallef admits he approached fatherhood much like an IKEA flatpack: without reading the instructions. 

Now his middle son Gabe is 26, and the pair have become colleagues, co-hosting Network 10’s Shaun Micallef’s Parents Evening, a game show that tests just how well parents and their adult children really know each other. 

In this episode, Shaun and Gabe sit down with Tiffany Dunk to talk about what Gabe inherited from his dad, growing up with one of Australia’s best-known comedians and how their relationship has changed now that they’re both adults. 

Plus, they...

Brooke McClymont rode her bike past Adam Eckersley 's house every morning on the way to school in Grafton. Most mornings he'd yell out that he was going to marry her one day. She'd yell back "in your dreams, mullet head." 

Ten years later they ran into each other at the pub at Christmas. Adam was living in his van at Merewether Beach. Brooke had a record deal. They sat up all night over cabanossi and brie and eventually worked out that they were more than friends. Then they signed a six-month lease in case it didn't wo...

Content warning: This episode discusses veteran mental health, alcohol use, and suicide. Support is available: Wounded Heroes Australia crisis line 1300 532 112 (24/7) | Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7). 

On a 3am car ride home together, Mark and Cherelle Herewini discussed marriage – four weeks later they were husband and wife. Now, after nearly three decades and multiple East Timor deployments, they're still together. But the years right after Mark hung up his uniform were some of the hardest of their marriage. 

In this episode, Mark and Cherelle sit down with Tiffany Dunk to talk about what deployment looked like for a new mum waiting by the p...

Jim Rogers met his wife Lorna in a small English town. The two connected over a shared obsession with VW Beetles. They married, had three children, and moved to Perth chasing sunshine. Life was good until Lorna was diagnosed with melanoma and tragically died within a few years, leaving Jim a single father to three children under nine. 

Eighteen months later, his parents sent him on a holiday he didn't want to go on. There, he met a man named Tyler. What followed was a relationship neither of them expected, kept quietly in the background of family life for y...

Content Warning: This episode discusses suicide, mental health issues, grief and the loss of a parent and child to illness. If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised, help is always available. Call Lifeline on 13 11 14. 

Find more support services here: Need help? Support services and crisis helplines in Australia - The Australian Women's Weekly 

In 2009, Gavin Larkin sat his wife Maryanne and their closest friends down at the dinner table and told them about an idea he'd been carrying since his own father died by suicide years earlier. It was...

Ed Kavalee still remembers the exact moment he fell for his wife, and it happened on his TV screen, watching her compete as Angel on Gladiators. 

In this episode, Tiff Hall and Ed Kavalee sit down with Tiffany Dunk (or podcast Tiff as Ed calls her) to talk about how a TV crush turned into an 18-year love story, including the radio interview Ed engineered just to meet her, the moment he got cold feet six months in, and the blender that won her back. 

They also open up about becoming parents, Ed's own childhood without a f...

Before Big Little Lies became a global phenomenon, Liane and Jaclyn Moriarty were just two sisters filling exercise books for pocket money, dreaming of becoming writers. 

In this episode, Liane and Jaclyn sit down with Tiffany Dunk to talk about the family that shaped them: a mother who fostered more than 50 babies, a father who paid them to write, and the safety of growing up as two of six kids who loved books more than television. 

They open up about the year Jaclyn was published first, the private rage Liane admits she felt, and what it took for h...

Content warning: This episode discusses combat injury, traumatic limb loss and newborn emergency surgery. If it raises anything for you, support is available: Wounded Heroes Australia crisis line 1300 532 112 (24/7 for ADF members, veterans and their families); Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling 1800 011 046 (24/7) | Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7). 

Curtis McGrath was searching for landmines in Afghanistan when the ground beneath him changed his life forever. Two years into their relationship, Rachel was 1500km away when she got the call. 

In this episode, Curtis and Rachel sit down with Tiffany Dunk to talk about the day everything changed, the months of hospital treatment and rehab that fol...

Content Warning: This story contains descriptions of drug use, addiction and death. Support is available: LifeLine. 

Wendy Whiteley has spent more than 30 years protecting the legacy of a man whom she loved deeply. In this candid episode of The Australian Women's Weekly Love Stories, the artist, gardener and first-time podcast guest joins Tiffany Dunk to reflect on her extraordinary life with, and after, Brett Whiteley. 

Wendy shares how a blind date led her to Brett, becoming his muse, and building a bohemian life together across London, Florence and New York. She opens up about the addiction that...

In Part 2 of this heartfelt conversation, actress, author, TV host, and proud Larrakia and Tiwi woman Miranda Tapsell and her mum, Barbara, share the moments that shaped their extraordinary mother-daughter bond. 

From the hilarious story of Barbara "testing" Miranda's now-husband James during his first visit to Darwin, to becoming grandmother and mother together, they reflect on how family evolves through every stage of life. Miranda opens up about raising children who are proud of their Tiwi and Larrakia heritage, why passing on culture matters, and the simple hope she has for the next generation: that they'll always know they...

Miranda Tapsell has become one of Australia's most celebrated actors and storytellers, but behind every chapter of her remarkable career is the woman who taught her what love, family, and community truly mean: her mum, Barbara. 

In this two-part episode of The Australian Women's Weekly Love Stories, proud Larrakia and Tiwi woman Miranda joins host Tiffany Dunk alongside Barbara for a heartfelt conversation about the unbreakable bond between mother and daughter, the lessons that have shaped their family across generations, and the love that has carried them through life's biggest changes. 

Together they reflect on Barbara...

Hannah Richell met Matt in a London publishing office in 2001. He had just walked in and taken the promotion she wanted, wearing jeans and Birkenstocks, and she was determined to hate him. Then September 11 happened, they sat by a canal with coffee the day after, and everything changed. 

Thirteen years later, on a completely ordinary Wednesday in July 2014, Matt went for a morning surf at Tamarama Beach before a meeting. He was 41, the CEO of Hachette Australia, and the father of their six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. He never came home. 

In this episode of The Aus...

Content warning: This episode discusses veteran suicide, family and domestic violence, PTSD, and severe financial hardship. If it raises anything for you, support is available: Wounded Heroes Australia crisis line 1300 532 112 (24/7, for ADF members, veterans and their families) | Open Arms — Veterans & Families Counselling 1800 011 046 (24/7) | Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7) | 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 (24/7). 

When a veteran or their family rings Wounded Heroes Australia at 2am, the voice on the other end is Martin Shaw. As the charity's president since 2011, he knows how impactful the voice on the phone can be. The words he says every time are the same ones that helped his wife fall for him: "Don...

Matty Acton was only 18 when he met Esther and her three-year-old son, Ethan. What began as an unlikely spark on a Toowoomba dance floor turned into a marriage, two more children, and a life that has never once followed the traditional timeline. 

In this episode of The Australian Women's Weekly Love Stories, Matty and Esther join Tiffany Dunk to reflect on the rocky early years of their relationship, the loss of Matty's father and the advice he gave his son about loving a ready-made family, as well as the moment Ethan first called Matty "Dad”. 

They...

For almost four decades, Vika and Linda Bull have been one of Australia's most beloved musical duos. But long before the ARIA Hall of Fame, chart-topping albums and standing ovations, they were simply two sisters growing up in a home filled with music, faith and an unwavering sense of family. 

In this episode of The Australian Women's Weekly Love Stories, Vika and Linda join Tiffany Dunk to reflect on the upbringing that shaped them, the unique bond of their "blood harmony", and the lessons they've learned from building a career side by side. 

Together they share stori...

Content Warning: This content discusses mental health issues, suicide, and peri and post-natal depression, which may be triggering for some audience members. Help is available below. 

Just over 25 years ago, Louise "Gidget" Cotton became a mother for the first time. Not long after, she died by suicide after experiencing peri and postnatal depression that those around her didn't recognise in time. She left behind a heartbroken family and an eight-and-a-half-month-old daughter. 

In this episode of The Australian Women's Weekly Love Stories, Tiffany Dunk sits down with Louise's mum, Sue Cotton, her sisters Jacqui and Simone, who co-founded th...

Lucinda Light became one of Australia's most beloved reality personalities thanks to her warmth, humour and unwavering belief in love on Married at First Sight. But the foundations for that outlook were laid long before she stepped in front of the cameras. 

In this episode of The Australian Women's Weekly Love Stories, Lucinda joins host Tiffany Dunk alongside her father, Michael Reilly, for an honest conversation about family, acceptance and the people who teach us how to love. 

Together they reflect on Lucinda's adventurous childhood, the close-knit family that encouraged curiosity and creativity, and the values...

They grew up in the same house, chased the same dream and spent two decades racing each other to the wall. Now, without any medals on the line, Cate and Bronte Campbell are sitting down to talk about the love story at the heart of it all: sisterhood. 

In this episode of The Australian Women's Weekly Love Stories, Cate and Bronte join host Tiffany Dunk to reflect on two decades of shared sacrifice, rivalry and unwavering support. They share moments from their childhood in Malawi, what it felt like to stand on an Olympic podium and the priva...

Emily wasn't sure she wanted to apply for Farmer Wants a Wife – until David's photo popped up on Facebook and changed her mind. Meanwhile, David had tried the apps, was living on his family farm and quietly hoping for something more.  

In this episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories, David and Emily sit down with Tiffany Dunk – with seven-week-old Willa in tow – to talk about the speed date where Emily was saved for last, the blind date that changed everything, and what it actually felt like to fall in love in front of the nation. 

They open up a...

When Rob "Millsy" Mills saw Georgie Tunny on ABC Breakfast in 2018, he did what any reasonable person would do: he Googled her, found their two mutual friends, and slid into her DMs. 

In this episode of The Australian Women's Weekly Love Stories, Georgie and Rob sit down with Tiffany Dunk to talk about the message Georgie left on read for three days, the Harry Potter spoof play that became their first date, and why 'sober dating' (coffee and a walk around the Botanical Gardens) might be the secret to a strong relationship. 

They open up about t...

When Nas Campanella was sent to Bega to take over Tom Oriti's job, neither of them expected the handover to become the beginning of a life together. 

In this episode of The Australian Women's Weekly Love Stories, Nas and Tom sit down with Tiffany Dunk to talk about the early days of their relationship, from nightly drives home and Italian family dinners to the very practical first gift that somehow said everything: a corkscrew. 

They also open up about building a family together, the assumptions people still make about Nas as a blind mother, and why...

When Amanda Ferrari left Sydney for the tiny town of Trangie, she was told there were two eligible bachelors she should stay away from. But the moment she walked into the local pub and saw farmer Ross across the bar, she knew she'd be ignoring that warning completely. 

More than 30 years later, Amanda and Ross Ferrari sit down with Tiffany Dunk for The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories to talk about the real life behind a country romance: becoming parents to premature twins, learning how to belong in a tight-knit town, supporting each other through drought, run...

Charlie Albone and Juliet Love’s love story started like a real-life rom com, although Juliet did not exactly leave their first meeting swooning. 

When the Better Homes and Gardens pair first met during a screen test in Rushcutters Bay, Charlie was nervous, hungover and barely speaking. Juliet drove away thinking he was rude. Somehow, a silent car ride, an accidental work date and one very persistent invitation later, they were on their way to a marriage that has now carried them through fast romance, two children, long stretches apart, renovations, health scares and the everyday mess of real...

Comedian, writer and professional tall girl Melanie Bracewell has built a career out of making strangers laugh  but the real love story starts at home, with a rescued Shih Tzu cross called Charles, his 'chaos goblin' sister Gigi, and a scrapbook full of tiny, hard won victories.

In this episode, Melanie talks with Deputy Editor Tiffany Dunk about growing up as the lanky kid who felt like “too much” and “not enough” at the same time, and how comedy became the first place she was allowed to take up space. She opens up about being diagnosed with ADHD as a...

Deb Lawrie did not set out to become a symbol. She just wanted to fly. 

By the late 1970s, Deb had the hours, the qualifications and the experience to become an airline pilot. What she did not have was the one thing Australia’s major airlines seemed to require: being a man. 

When Ansett refused to hire her, Deb took on one of the country’s most powerful companies and won. Her landmark case made her Australia’s first female commercial pilot, and helped force open a door that had been firmly shut to women. 

In this e...

When Katie Noonan’s 20-year marriage ended, it wasn’t a clean plot twist, it was the slow unravelling of the life she thought she’d be living forever: two boys, one family, a future she could name.

In this episode of Love Stories, Katie chats with Deputy Editor Tiffany Dunk of The Australian Women's Weekly about her layered grief: losing her Dad, becoming suddenly single, and realising that the person you have to learn to love again is yourself.

This isn’t a celebrity profile so much as an emotional recording of a songwriter who has go...

If you grew up translating for your parents, working in the family business and quietly editing your dreams down to something “sensible,” this episode is for you. Actor Ana Thu Nguyen and her mum, Uyen, talk about going from a crowded boat and 17‑hour bakery days to a life where survival isn’t the only goal and why Ana finally stopped treating acting as a selfish fantasy and started seeing it as the point. This isn’t a guilt trip; it’s loud, joyful permission for anyone who’s ever thought, “That dream’s not for someone like me,” to want more anyway...

On paper, Sarah Todd and Declan Cleary’s love story looks like a match made in heaven: two chefs meet on MasterChef Australia: Back to Win, he cooks the “marry me” barbecue fish, she makes the French bouillabaisse, and they ride off into the sunset with matching aprons. In reality, it’s messier, braver and far more interesting a story about second chances, blended families and a birth that almost broke them before their twins even took their first breath.

In this episode of Love Stories Tiffany Dunk Deputy Editor of The Australian Women's Weekly, Sarah and Declan rew...

Sensitive issues raised 💓

Love Notes bonus episode is part of our series of Love Stories -  short, quiet episodes from The Australian Women’s Weekly. With small reminders that love is something we practise, not just something that happens to us.

In this Love Note, Charmaine Caldwell, CEO and founder of VIXIN   returns to discuss with Deputy Editor Tiffany Dunk the part of midlife we rarely see: a decade‑long menopause journey, running a business through what she calls “100 mental breakdowns,” and the quiet work of learning to be kind to herself again. She talks about choosing...

Who loves you for the longest? Not in the dramatic, fireworks way but in the quiet “did you book your scan?” way. In this episode, we sit with Miss Universe Australia Lexie Brandt and her mum, Penny, in the kind of conversation that usually happens in hospital corridors or parked cars outside imaging clinics

Lexie was 11 when Penny was diagnosed with high grade breast cancer on the same day Lexie started Year 6 and became a school captain. It’s the age when you’re meant to be stress crying about friendships and braces, not mammograms and mortality. Overnigh...

Have you ever talked yourself out of something big because it sounded “unrealistic” on paper new city, new partner, new life and then spent years wondering what might’ve happened if you’d just gone with your gut?

In this episode of Love Stories hosted by our Deputy Editor Tiffany Dunk, David and Lisa Campbell rewind to the moment they met by chance in Melbourne him in a musical with Magda Szubanski, her in a serious UK theatre production—and let us into the slightly unhinged decision that followed: three weeks of knowing each other, then a one‑way ti...

In this episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories, we’re talking about the kind of love that pads down the hallway on four legs and leaves a paw-shaped crater when it’s gone. 🐾💓

You’ll meet Ryan Wilson, a former SAS soldier whose life was literally saved by a military dog named Fax during a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, and whose heart was later held together by Kenny, the clumsy, grinning working dog who became his shadow for 15 years.  Ryan shares the moment Fax sensed danger on the wind, found the hidden fighters waiting to kill them, a...

Journalist and TV host Narelda Jacobs and her wife, political strategist Karina Natt, join Deputy Editor of the Australian Women's Weekly, Tiffany Dunk on the Love Stories couch to share the very modern, very tender story of how friendship across state lines became a marriage, a baby and a whole new way of living. From a chance meeting in the ABC Q+A green room, through late‑night five‑hour phone calls and a WorldPride first date, to Karina packing up her life in Adelaide for Sydney, they talk about choosing partnership when you’ve spent years insisting you don’t “...

Sensitive issues raised 💓

Love Notes bonus episode is part of our series of Love Stories -  short, quiet episodes from The Australian Women’s Weekly. With small reminders that love is something we practise, not just something that happens to us.

In this Love Note, we sit with Charmaine Caldwell, CEO and founder of VIXIN and Deputy Editor Tiffany Dunk as she uncovers something special she calls her “why book”: a journal stuffed with handwritten messages from customers, friends, charities and, most of all, her son. She reads a note she wrote to herself 16 years ago a lette...

What if your armpit smell, your birth control, and a dying octopus all had something to say about your love life? In this episode of Love Stories with beloved Dr Karl Kruszelnicki - Australia’s loudest shirt and sharpest science brain we pull apart the chemistry, hormones and fascinating questions behind who we want, why we stay, and when we should absolutely run alongside Deputy Editor of the Australian Women's Weekly, Tiffany Dunk. 

We start with the body: menstrual cycles, the pill, and how shifting hormones can quietly reroute your attraction, your moods, and even how “into” your pa...

Sensitive issues raised. 💓

Before she was the first winner of MasterChef Australia, Julie Goodwin was a 19‑year‑old girl on Pennant Hills Road, in a car with a quiet boy who loved rock music. The Angels came on, “I Just Want to Be With You” started to play, and somewhere between the traffic lights and the chorus, Mick casually said, “This’d be my song for you.” For Julie, that was it. Her heart locked on. “This is my person.

In this episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories with Deputy Editor Tiffany Dunk , we meet Julie a...