Heartbreak and happiness
Mark and Matilda’s island hijinks
G
etting in front of the camera to host a TV show for the first time would be nerve-wracking for most. But not if you’re Matilda Rice or Mark Dye.
The dynamic duo are fronting TVNZ 2’s new series
HeartbreakIsland, confessing to Woman’sDay on our sizzling photo shoot in Fiji that rather than feeling tense during filming, they kept getting in trouble for laughing.
“I was worried that he’d be a dick and I’d have to hang out with him every day for six weeks,” Matilda tells us. “But it was so much fun. We ended up joking about the whole time as we weren’t the ones getting eliminated.”
Mark adds, “Yeah, the producers had to tell us to stop laughing and to try to hold the tension so many times, but our hearts weren’t on the line – we weren’t going to lose out on $100,000.”
HeartbreakIsland has been made to shock, throwing 16 genetically blessed singles onto an exotic Fijian island to battle it out for a cash prize and, of course, true love.
It might sound simple, but add in alcohol-fuelled parties and a sly loophole allowing contestants to swap partners, and the result is simply “TV gold”, laughs Mark.
It’s both his and Matilda’s
first time as TV hosts – and they landed on their feet.
“Every morning, we were dying to find out what happened the night before,” says Matilda. “We were very invested in the contestants’ lives from day one, really.”
Mark chips in, “We loved, we hated and, actually, our opinions on people changed as the series went on.”
While former Newstalk ZB host Mark, 32, had only been in front of a camera once, as a child on ReadySteadyCook, his co-presenter is no stranger to the small screen.
Matilda, 27, won the firstever series of TheBachelor
NZ in 2015 and the heart of hottie Art Green. Last September, the loved-up oved up pair got go engaged g in Rarotonga, on what Matilda calls “the perfect day”.
So when we jokingly ask her if you can really find love on a reality show, Matilda immediately starts to squeal, “Yes, you absolutely can!”
She and Art, 29, are now planning their wedding, but the details are a closely guarded secret, with Matilda revealing that they haven’t even told friends how their special day will unfold.
The star will only let slip, “The planning is going good. It’s interesting g as it shows you y different parts of a relationship. Art is like, ‘I really don’t care,’ so it looks like I’m doing the whole thing!”
Meanwhile, Mark is unlikely to be bringing a plus-one to the wedding, confessing that he is well and truly single. “My plan this year was to leave to go travelling, so the last thing I wanted was a relationship. But my plans kind of changed with the
HeartbreakIsland gig.” The pair admit that watching the show unfold often gave them hem flashbacks flashba