Nova host Wippa says he and wife Lisa sleep in separate bedrooms

NOVA host Wippa says he and his wife sleep in separate bedrooms, and that their arrangement is the key to marital bliss.

Michael and Lisa Wipfli their sons Ted and Jack. The couple say they sleep in separate bedrooms. Picture: Adam Taylor

AS THE wise Carrie Bradshaw once said, ever since Woody Allen described waving to Mia Farrow across Central Park, many couples have yearned for that same kind of “separate togetherness” in their relationships.

For many, like Nova breakfast host Wippa, separate bedrooms is the key to marital bliss. This morning Wippa revealed he and his wife Lisa, who have two young sons, sleep apart.

“It’s not a problem ... to say it needs fixing would suggest there’s an issue,” Wippa told his co-hosts Fitzy and Sarah McGilvray during Thursday morning’s show.

“If I had any question over it, I would make something happen. I don’t question it though. Separate beds is the way to go,” said Wippa, who is on air from 6am during the week.

“There are so many people who would say separate beds are healthy for your relationship. You get your best sleep, so when I’m with the family and we’re together she gets the best of me.”

Lisa Robertson and Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli. Picture: Christian Gilles

The couple aren’t alone with their unconventional arrangement. Radio host Zoe Marshall and her football husband Benji have a similar agreement.

“Benji and I have separate rooms due to snoring,” Marshall told Beauticate. “No need for remedies we both love having our own rooms. It is our idea of heaven. I love waking up in the morning and finding him to give him a big snuggle. It makes intimacy exciting too.”

British actor Helena Bonham Carter and her ex husband, director Tim Burton, famously lived in houses next door to one another.

“We see as much of each other as any couple, but our relationship is enhanced by knowing we have our personal space to retreat to,” Bonham-Carter told The Radio Times.

“It’s not enforced intimacy. It’s chosen, which is quite flattering — if you can afford it.”

“Tim does snore, and that’s an element. We’ve tried lots of remedies that don’t work. He has a deviated septum and doesn’t want an operation.”

Actor Helena Bonham Carter and director Tim Burton. Picture: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

In his memoir, Both Of Us: My Life With Farrah, Farrah Fawcett’s partner Ryan O’Neal explained why the couple slept separately.

“Yes, we were sleeping in separate bedrooms by then, but not for the reasons you’re thinking. When Redmond [their son] was a toddler he’d come into our bedroom at night wanting to sleep between us. Redmond has strong legs like his mother, and he would burrow into the bed, decide he didn’t have enough room, and then start pushing with all his might, until I had no other choice but to sleep on the floor or in the other room.

“Eventually he outgrew this, but by then, Farrah and I had grown used to our privacy and it stuck, and even when we travelled after that, we’d often get adjoining rooms. I always thought of our arrangement as terribly mature of us. Now I wish I could have back every one of those nights we slept in separate beds.”