Fiona Falkiner: ‘I didn’t even know this kind of connection existed’
In their first photo shoot and interview together, television host Fiona Falkiner and her fiancée Hayley Willis reveal the details of their whirlwind engagement.
The love story of model Fiona Falkiner started in the most modern of ways: it was born on social media.
The contestant-turned-host of The Biggest Loser was gallivanting around Europe in June last year, getting over a failed relationship, when a direct message from a stranger via Instagram changed the course of her life.
“Everyone pretends they don’t read their DMs, but they do,” Falkiner, 36, tells Stellar. “Sometimes it’s from crazies. But this one stood out a little more.”
The message was from Nine Network sports journalist Hayley Willis, asking Falkiner if she could take her for a drink.
Even today, the 29-year-old Willis admits to Stellar, she can’t quite explain why (or how) she had the nerve to reach out to Falkiner, who first rose to fame after losing 30 kilos on the popular reality TV show 13 years ago.
“I didn’t know who she was and can only assume her profile came up on my explore feed on Instagram. So with a bit of liquid courage, I slid into her DMs,” Willis says with a smile, referencing popular parlance for direct, private contact with another person online.
Falkiner agreed to that drink and, 11 months on, they are happily engaged.
On the set of their first photo shoot as a couple, Falkiner is beaming as she considers their happy outcome: “This is what comes of saying, ‘What the hell!’”
In their presence, it is all but impossible to ignore the fact the two exist in something of a loved-up bubble.
They’re like giddy schoolgirls as they hold hands, kiss and answer questions while looking into one another’s eyes.
Falkiner explains that it is the type of connection she’d been searching for the entire time she dated — which, until October 2017, only ever involved men.
The model, who uses her fame to openly and honestly discuss her ongoing battle with weight and mental health, even enlisted the help of dating website eharmony and became its ambassador.
But nothing seemed to land for Falkiner, who says there were times when she thought her dream of a big white wedding might have passed her by.
“Thinking back on it, I’ve realised I could never get the emotional connection with men. And I’ve tried to date all kinds of men, from all kinds of backgrounds,” she says.
“Most relationships didn’t last past four months and they never got to see the real me. Now for the first time, with Hayley, I feel like I’ve been accepted — just for me. And loved — just for me. I didn’t even know that this kind of connection could exist.”
The two say they have been inseparable since that first meeting. “One thing about girls, it goes from zero to 100 in a minute,” says Falkiner. “You’re in or you’re out. There are no games.”
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Willis adds that compared to past relationships, which have also included men, life with her new fiancée is a cinch. “It was easy falling in love with her, it’s easy doing life with her, it’s easy to tackle anything together because we work as a team.
“From the moment I started seeing her, I just knew I never wanted to be apart from her. Everyone says you’ve got to wait a certain amount of time to do things, but I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, so I thought, ‘Why wait?’”
And she didn’t, asking Falkiner to be her wife during a holiday in Vanuatu last month.
Still, Willis did stick to a few traditions, like asking Falkiner’s parents for their daughter’s hand in marriage before she proposed.
“It meant a lot to me to do that,” says Willis. “It meant they were accepting me for me. I’m not a dude. I’m not the future they had previously imagined. And they both said yes.”
The Sydney-born journalist then enlisted the help of a diamond company to create an engagement ring and asked the owners of a local resort to help execute a sunset beach proposal, complete with champagne, seafood barbecue, bonfire and fireworks — one that wouldn’t have felt out of place on The Bachelor.
All of it took Falkiner by complete surprise. “One second I’m running down to the water’s edge to get a photo, the next minute I turn around and she’s down on her knee,” she says. “I lost it. I cried too much to let her say what she wanted to say!”
Willis says in the days leading up to the proposal she was a little nervous, not just because she wanted things to go perfectly, but also because having to hide the ring was difficult.
“But the actual moment I walked down to her, it just felt so right, there wasn’t any nerves. I could not be happier.”
The two have been overwhelmed by the firm backing of family and friends. Says Willis, “My family are Christian and I grew up with Christian beliefs, but they’ve been very supportive ever since I came out.
“My dad welled up a bit when I told him I was proposing and my mum keeps saying, ‘We couldn’t have picked a better person for you.’”
Falkiner adds that her parents, who hail from rural Victoria, are the same: “I guess they had seen me single for so long, and just wanted me to find someone to love me. My happiness is important to them. Yes, it’s an adjustment, but they have been amazing.”
Falkiner’s best friend, relationship expert Nikki Goldstein, believes their union proves what can happen when someone puts aside “superficial limitations like gender” and “instead focuses on a feeling and connection”.
“I’ve been there through all the [relationship] heartache and the tears and drama, and now it’s so nice for me to see her genuinely happy,” says Goldstein. “Hayley brings out the best in her, and vice versa.”
Willis’s colleague and mentor Erin Molan jokes that the reporter has now taken from her the title of “quickest mover when it comes to relationship commitment” in the Nine Network sports department, adding “I couldn’t be happier for the two of them.”
The two are quick to acknowledge that while they’re grateful same-sex marriage is now legal in Australia, they also appreciate the support system around them.
“I get messages from people all the time, telling me their coming-out stories and how horrible they are, and also thanking me for being open about my relationship,” says Falkiner.
“That’s why I want to shout [my love] from the rooftop. It’s f*cking love. And at the end of the day, happiness and love is what we all deserve.
“Everyone should be able to have that, no matter who it’s with.”
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