THE STORY OF US
THE POPULAR GOGGLE-BOXERS SHARE THE SECRET TO THEIR 56-YEAR RELATIONSHIP
They’re TV’S most stylish couch potatoes, but when Gogglebox stars Mick and Di met 56 years ago, life was very different for them.
“It was so long ago!” exclaims Di, now 73. “Back in those days, you didn’t even have a cordless phone. So, if someone rang you, you only had one phone in the house and everyone could hear your conversation. Dating was definitely not like it is now!”
Mick, now 76, adds: “We mixed in the same crowd on the Northern Beaches [in Sydney] and we ran into each other, probably at the Newport pub.”
For glamorous former model Di, her first impressions of her future husband were favourable.
“To be honest, I thought ‘Oh yes, OK!’” she says.
As for former advertising executive Mick, he recalls: “thinking Di was very attractive, which she was – well, she is!” he adds, to which Di quickly interjects with a laugh: “You’d better be careful there!”
So, when did the couple, now doting grandparents to 3-year-old Harvey, realise their relationship was becoming serious?
“We were on-again, off-again, and on-again,” says Di. “I was only 17 when we met and Mick was 20. But people got married much younger then. You didn’t muck around.
“Mick didn’t get down on one knee and say, ‘Will you marry me?’ It was more like, ‘Hello! We’ve been around together for a while. Why don’t we get married?’”
“Although I do recall asking Di’s father for her hand,” says Mick, confessing, “I was petrified – he was a pretty big bloke!”
Married in 1967 in a church ceremony, the newlyweds celebrated with family and friends at Di’s parents’ house.
“It was very much the ’60s thing, with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones,” says Di. “It was just a lot of fun. The men were all dressed in black tie in those days and the ladies wore formal dresses. Thai silk was the uniform of the day.
“I can remember my mother was in pink Thai silk and Mick’s mother was in cornflower blue Thai silk. We drove to Surfers Paradise for our honeymoon. That’s what you did.”
“It was a matter of finances as well,” says Mick. “I certainly couldn’t have afforded us going to Italy. About halfway through the honeymoon, I had to ring my mother for money!”
In the years to come, the couple welcomed their son Alex, 41, and daughter Victoria, 39. Life, it seems, has been blessed in almost every way. “We’ve hung in for 51 years, so that says something,” agrees Mick, as Di adds with a chuckle: “There’s no going back now!”
What’s the secret to their long and happy relationship?
“It’s a lot of give and take,” says Mick. “Now, when a couple hits a bump, they call it quits.”
Agrees Di: “I say to my kids ‘There’s no such thing as the perfect marriage.’ You go with the flow. There are always hard times. Everyone hits a financial crisis at some stage, and you just get through it and move onwards.
“The thing, too, is we have a lot of common interests, which is a major plus in a marriage. We do a lot of stuff together, and that works.”
And, these days, Mick and Di, who love food, wine, art and, of course, TV, are both enjoying their time in the Gogglebox spotlight.
“It’s a lot of fun,” says Di. “We do watch shows we wouldn’t otherwise watch in a million years. But surprisingly enough, we often end up enjoying them. “We also get recognised all the time – we’re late bloomers!” laughs Di.