When John Key first met his future wife she was standing on a doorstep crying.
Bronagh Dougan, as she was then, had failed an economics exam. So had her friend Jenny, who Bronagh went to visit.
Key was at Jenny’s place, tutoring Jenny’s sister in economics, and he opened the door when Bronagh arrived, the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly reported in a piece headlined: John and Bronagh The Key to Our Amazing Marriage.
Key and Bronagh both went to Burnside High School in Christchurch, but there was two years between them and they had no contact before the meeting at Jenny’s house.
“He opened the door and I was crying on the doorstep,” Bronagh, 50, said.
“My friend was also upset and he ended up sitting with one of us on each side crying.”
Shortly after that Key took his mother, Ruth, out to dinner at a local hotel where Bronagh was a waitress.
Their paths crossed again when Bronagh, who had hurt her leg, and a flu-stricken Key went to the same doctor.
Key tutored his future wife in economics, and she went on to get an economics degree.
They married two weeks after Bronagh turned 21, and this year will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.
Key, 52, and Bronagh were a bit of a double act, with an obvious endearing affection between them, the Weekly said.
Key said the couple did not have rows, he just “gets told off”.
“I don’t answer back because I’ve learnt it’s not good strategy. I do as I’m told,” Key said.
While the prime minister might not be a Mr Fix-It around the house, he did wash the car and had to be given a time limit when he started using a waterblaster he bought recently.
When Key is in Auckland, he and Bronagh try to go to a local cafe or head to a farmers’ market, accompanied by the prime minister’s security team.
Most coffee shops in the area were used to him turning up, Key said.
“I wait in the queue like everyone else.”
He also dropped off his own dry-cleaning and returned DVDs.
The coverage in Woman’s Day on the death of Charlotte Dawson, who was found dead in her Sydney apartment, includes comments from Dawson’s birth mother.
Born in April 1966 to teen mum Carole Warner, 66, Dawson was adopted by Palmerston North couple Richard and Jose Dawson.
Warner recalled how she and Dawson were reunited almost 40 years after the adoption.
“After we were reunited, we had a lot of fun together. We both liked our wine. We carried on like sisters. We had a lot of similarities, even the way our lives had panned out – I also modelled when I was younger and worked in media and radio,” Warner said.
“My favourite memories are of being in Charlotte’s place in Auckland and her cooking the most beautiful meals. She’d put on some crazy movie and we’d laugh until we cried,” she said.
“We had a wonderful time for a while, but sadly – as all too often happens in finding one’s birth relatives – it became difficult and I regret that we hadn’t been in touch since she went back to live in Australia.”
Dawson was a shining, crazy diamond.
“I am stunned and deeply saddened that this beautiful woman has gone and that she was so horribly beaten down by many factors in the last chapter of her life,” Warner said.
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“I’ve lost her twice now, but at least I know she has now found her peace.”
Woman’s Day also reports that New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum and wife Ellissa are expecting their third baby.
The arrival of a new daughter in a few months would be the icing on the cake of what had already been a massive year for McCullum, 32. Last month he became the first New Zealander to top 300 runs in an international innings.
The successes this year had been a chance to repay his wife for all the support she had given him, McCullum said.
“She’s allowed me the ability to live the dream of representing my country, but at the same time ensuring my home life remains strong.”
While McCullum would like even more children, Ellissa said three was enough.
“I’ve put my foot down,” she said. “This will be our last baby. He still wants more, but it’s a lot harder third time around.”
The apparently burgeoning friendship between 17-year-old New Zealand singer Lorde and her new US singing pal Taylor Swift, 24, comes in for some close photographic attention.
The two are shown together shopping in West Hollywood, as well as walking barefoot on the sand at California’s Malibu Beach.
The fun and feminine miniskirt worn by Lorde had been a change from her usual dark, moody and layered look, Woman’s Day said.
New Idea said the pair looked relaxed and carefree.
The weekend had reportedly been topped off, with the two attending Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz show at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles.
Rumours were rife they were set to collaborate on a new song.
Lorde recently told a British radio station: “Yeah, we are [different] … but I think the cool thing about Taylor is she is pretty willing to go a lot of places with music.”
With an artist like Swift “the sky is the limit”.
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