‘Shocked’: Jett Kenny and Lily Brown break silence on engagement
Ironman Jett Kenny and influencer Lily Brown have revealed the reality behind THAT engagement announcement, and why the bride-to-be was in a state of shock.
A short video posted on social media in September this year shows ironman Jett Kenny and content creator Lily Brown sharing a single string of pasta in Italy – à la that famous scene from the classic 1955 Disney animated movie Lady And The Tramp – with Brown revealing her newly engaged, blinged-up hand as she reaches up to caress Kenny’s face.
But while their almost 400,000 combined followers on Instagram were treated to this playful moment to announce their engagement, the couple say the four-minute footage of the actual proposal will never see the light of day.
“Inside that [longer] video, you see just how shocked I was because I actually collapsed,” Brown, 27, tells Stellar of the moment her partner of three years got down on one knee during their European holiday.
“I got the ‘zoomies’ at one point, I ran away from him for 10 seconds then ran back, jumped up and down on the spot a few times … I think it took me at least two minutes to say yes. It’s all a blur. I couldn’t have dreamt it better.”
The pair’s families, including Kenny’s well-known parents, former ironman Grant Kenny and former competitive swimmer Lisa Curry, were equally delighted by the news.
Indeed, family played a big part in them getting together; it was Brown’s mum Nataly who initially brought the duo into each other’s orbit – a fact she will never let the couple forget.
“Twelve months prior to our first date, my mum played Cupid,” Brown reveals.
“Jett was on SAS Australia [the reality show on which he competed in 2021] and my mum was watching.
“She sent me a picture of him on the screen, and said, ‘You should follow this guy on Instagram. He’s so lovely, he’s hot, and he loves his mum.’
“They were the three things. And obviously the photo, I was like, ‘Yep, he’s stunning. He’s gorgeous.’ So then I followed him on Instagram.”
Kenny followed her back, and the rest is history. While the proposal ended up being “perfect”, Kenny had originally planned to propose in Australia and spend their European holiday celebrating the engagement.
“That didn’t pay off due to the weather, but [the proposal] ended up being done in front of two of Lily’s best friends from Brisbane [who were in Italy already] that she’s been friends with a very, very long time,” the 31-year-old recalls.
“Obviously, Lily and I are very fortunate. We get to do a lot of trips and experience a lot of lovely things together, so all of our time together is, quote unquote, love.
“But to be able to share an experience like that with Lily’s friends was so special.”
Last year Kenny and Brown featured on reality TV series The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition. The often stressful show pits competing pairs against each other in a race through various countries, and it has seen relationships severely tested – even to the point of breaking down.
As for these two? The experience only strengthened their bond. “We had the absolute time of our lives doing that together,” Brown says.
“Although I wasn’t concerned for our relationship, whether it could stand the test of The Amazing Race, the show somehow made it stronger in a weird way – not that it was ever not strong. It just cemented the fact that we were right for one another.”
While the series was Brown’s first foray into television, it was familiar territory for Kenny. “I’ve dabbled in every show under the sun. I refer to myself as the Troy McClure of The Simpsons [a character who holds a number of TV roles],” Kenny says with a laugh.
As well as SAS and Amazing Race, he appeared on Dancing With The Stars in 2019 and last year’s season of Gladiators Australia.
If the opportunity were to arise, he says he would “100 per cent” pair up with Brown to compete on reality television again.
“We kind of joked about a potential Big Brother, where you have couples go in, and you put them on opposite teams so they’ve got to compete against one another,” he says.
Quips Brown in response, “He just wants to compete against me, not with me!”
When the pair aren’t racing around the world, Brown is focusing on Chillé, her luxury sleepwear and loungewear brand, which launched in 2021.
The entrepreneur credits her family and Kenny, who modelled for the brand, with “saving the business” when it hit a rough patch a few years ago.
“I would honestly be nowhere without them; we’ve really turned the business around. It was in a dire place after some financial struggles,” Brown admits.
“I never went to university or studied a business degree or anything like that, so I’ve thrown myself into the thick of it and figured it out along the way.
“It’s been really successful so far.”
This time of the year is a particularly full one for the couple, with Brown working on Chillé and Kenny busy in his job as a lifeguard, as well as content creation commitments and some family trips.
“I’m just sort of head down, bum up, trying to grind as hard as I can in order to pay for a wedding,” Brown tells Stellar.
Apart from hiring a wedding planner, the pair say they haven’t yet progressed any further with their plans for the big day, and are just revelling in being engaged.
“Every morning I wake up and roll over, and she’s staring at her hand,” Kenny says with a grin.
“It’s like, ‘It’s still there. It hasn’t fallen off while you’ve been asleep.’”
In reply, Brown just laughs. “How could I not stare?” she asks with a smile. “It’s so beautiful. I’m getting compliments on it all the time, out in public. I’m like, ‘Oh, thank you so much. It’s new.’”
See the full shoot with Jett Kenny and Lily Brown in a new issue of Stellar, inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA).
For more from Stellar, click here.
