Four couples on working next to each other every day
PRODUCING the No.1 FM breakfast radio show is stressful enough, but imagine your wife worked just metres away, steering the ship of your fiercest competitor.
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BRUNO and Laura Bouchet go head-to-head every day at work in an industry where there is no prize for coming second ... then go home and share nappy changing duties.
Both are executive producers at the Australian Radio Network — Bruno calling the shots during the Kyle And Jackie O Show on KIIS while Laura does the same thing for Jonesy and Amanda down the hall at WSFM.
The two shows were equal first on the FM dial coming to the end of 2017 before Kyle and Jackie O pipped their frenemies in the year’s last survey to claim the crown on their own. With both teams now back on air after the Christmas break, 2018 is anyone’s game.
Laura and Bruno have radio running through their blood veins so it was only natural the two first met at work, although it’s hardly going to make the list of most romantic first encounters.
“I just saw her from across the room at the photocopier and I quite fancied her so I just said ‘You doing some photocopying?’ and she said ‘yep’ and that was it. After those magical words, the rest is history,” Bruno laughs.
Laura managed to see past the new guy’s questionable fashion sense and the pair started dating almost 10 years ago.
“I thought he was a bit nerdy at the time because he had blond streaks in his hair and he’d wear these woollen vests and checkered shirts,” she says.
The pair manage very different radio teams: Kyle and Jackie O court controversy on their show. Jonesy and Amanda are more relaxed and conversational, although the pair have quite different views on news and current affairs.
While Bruno orchestrates many of the show’s segments, Sandilands is known to go off script and inject his own views into the program and while they are often the moments that polarise Sydneysiders, it doesn’t bother the seasoned producer.
“Have I personally been uncomfortable? No, but every day we try to get as close to that line as possible and I have found myself once or twice looking at that line and been like ‘oh it seems like our foot is a little bit more to one side than that other’,” he says. “Having said that I think that’s part of the charm of the show.”
Laura and Bruno have yet to work together on the same show — at least in radio. They did share writing duties on Sandilands’ television show Meet The Hockers which aired on 9Go! last year.
With so much riding on the ratings, the pair could be forgiven for being overly competitive with each other, but they see each other as colleagues rather than husband and wife.
“I’ll usually wander down because he doesn’t eat unless I make him lunch, he’s just too caught up. If I’m grabbing lunch I’ll grab him something and drop it over there. I wouldn’t be welcome if I came empty-handed,” Laura says.
“Oh no if you came empty-handed I’d tell you turn right around,” Bruno adds.
Recently they’ve added a new member to the team — daughter Juliette was born nine months ago. Laura took time off work to look their daughter and, with Bruno having to leave so early in the morning, was the one getting up all through the night to tend to the restless sleeper.
But things have changed with Laura back working the same unsociable hours as her husband. So are they sharing the overnight duties now?
“Well, I’m still breastfeeding so that probably means Bruno is off the hook for the time being, but who knows what will happen down the track?” says Laura.
Adds Bruno: “Never say never, but to be honest I’d probably fall to pieces if I had to get up in the middle of the night like Laura does — she is incredible.”
AMY HARRIS AND JARRYD MADDEN
BALLET DANCERS
WHEN Amy Harris and Jarryd Madden tell the story of when sparks first started to fly between the pair, it sounds more like a high school love story than that of two of the country’s top ballet dancers.
Madden was the new boy in the Australian Ballet and had been paired up with the “beautiful” Harris during rehearsals. While their attention should have been on the choreography, it was instead focused on each other. Had there been a teacher in the room, the pair may well have been handed a detention slip for disrupting the class.
“It all kind of started in my first year when we were partnered together for Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake and it was a long rehearsal period,” Madden recalls. “We were together a lot of the time in those rehearsals and we talked a lot more when we should have been dancing more and it just spiralled from that really.”
Friendship quickly turned into romance and the pair eventually married as they continued their rise up the company’s ranks. Both are now senior dancers in the company and popular key members of the tight-knit dancers group.
Being married and working together was never a problem for the dancers, but when daughter Willow came along a few years later, it brought a new dimension to the set-up.
Unlike a regular 9-5 job, it’s not easy to have a night off when your child is sick and people have forked out hundreds of dollars to see you dance. But kids get sick and as a parent your first priority is clear.
“We’ve had two periods with Willow where she’s been in ICU and it’s where you thank your lucky stars you have a boss like ours (artistic director David McAllister) who is just so understanding that life and family are very important and it’s out of your control,” Harris says. “It’s not that this is any less important but there is a little life that relies on us solely and he knows that Willow is our priority.”
Despite these challenges and the added pressure of being on the road for much of the year, the two say they have a system that works, even if it takes a small army to pull off.
“We couldn’t do what we do without my family, without Jarryd’s family and their support, we’ve got a wonderful daycare in Melbourne who are very understanding,” Harris says.
“All in all it’s about being a team and we always say we’re just a really good team. I’m the anxious kind of stress head and Jarryd puts the lid on that and calms everyone down.”
GEORGINA MARTIN AND KIERAN BIRCHALL
FLORIST/PR
GEORGIA Martin, 25, has only received flowers from boyfriend Kieran Birchall, 26, twice in the two years they had been together, but that didn’t deter him from leaving real estate to become a florist.
For the first six months, Kieran ran My Flower Man on Fridays as a hobby before realising it could be a bona fide business. His arrangements, featuring whatever is at the market that morning, quickly became known for their clean, natural, minimal aesthetic.
“I had no interest in floristry whatsoever. It just happened by chance a friend took me out to the flower market, I came home and said to Georgia this is what I want to do,” he says.
So he started an Instagram account, gave flowers to friends and family and Georgia, who had just started her freelance PR business, took him on as a client.
“Georgia is fashion PR so the flowers mixed in well,” Kieran says. “I ended up doing lots of photo shoots and events, they went hand-in-hand which helped it grow quicker. The clientele groomed the aesthetic.”
Although they never planned on working together, they credit her back-end savvy and his creative flair as being key to the business’ success.
“Kieran’s not very good on email or getting back to people and that really frustrated me so I took over all of that,” Georgia says.
Georgia believes that when you’re in it together, you can’t separate work and home.
“I don’t feel like it’s a bad thing either. I feel like a lot of people talk about work/life balance, but we really like our job, what we do and working together,” she says.
You’d think that Kieran can now no longer rely on flowers as a romantic gesture. He disagrees.
“No, but I can. There are some flowers that are so super unique that there’s very limited stock,” he says.
He nabbed Georgia a bunch of tree peonies, one of only four bunches at the market recently, and delivered them into bed at 7am.
“It’s not just like, here’s all the leftovers. He’s buying for the intent that it’s for me, which is nice,” she says.
PETER LEW AND NICOLE GALLOWAY
RESTAURATEURS
RESTAURATEURS Peter Lew, 37, and Nicole Galloway, 36, opened their latest eatery Chula on the very spot they first met.
In 2009 Galloway was managing Hugo’s Bar and Pizza in Kings Cross and Lew, who was friends with the chef, would crash staff meals. They bonded over a love of modern Chinese cuisine. Galloway’s expertise was strong enough to make Lew want to ditch his accounting background and convince his uncle — Gilbert Lau of Melbourne’s famed Flower Drum — to share his recipes so the couple could open Fei Jai in Potts Point.
They’d only been together for six months.
“I think that’s why it worked,” Galloway says. “The relationship was still in that getting-to-know-one-another phase where we just liked being around each other all the time.”
Opening Barrio Chino a few years later gave them some much needed separation from living and working together.
“We are both stubborn and we are both always right. One time, she threw a pen at me,” Lew says.
They now run four restaurants, including Barrio Cellar and Fei Jai Next Door plus an investment in Darlo Country Club. However Chula proved the hardest as they now also have to juggle sons Archie, 4, and Freddie, 2.
“I never wanted a nanny, until we opened here. When they get to school it will be easier,” Nicole says.
Living and working in the same neighbourhood makes the juggle easier.
“I’ve had real estate agents call and ask if we would open in Barangaroo, but it’s too far. We can’t walk there,” Peter says.
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