THE STORY OF US
THE TV AND FILM COUPLE ON LOVE, MARRIAGE AND THE FUNNY SIDE OF LIFE
It’s easy to imagine the sound of laughter in the Melbourne home of Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope. The couple have long been one of the entertainment industry’s most delightful
– not to mention funniest – duos. And perhaps, best of all, they have always made each other laugh.
“I find Robyn continuously hilarious,” says Wayne. “The way she thinks is surprising - and surprising is the key to funny, I think.”
“We complement each other well,” Robyn agrees.
Married for two decades, the couple are hugely talented writers, producers and actors. Together they run their production company Gristmill, responsible for everything from TV hits The Librarians and Upper Middle Bogan to the movie Now Add Honey and recently, The Inbestigators.
Fittingly, too, when the couple met, they were on the set of The Comedy Channel series Small Tales & True. “Robyn co-created and wrote it, and I was employed as an actor on the series to play Robyn’s husband,” says Wayne, admitting he was “a little besotted” from the outset.
“I was trying not to give the game away too early,” he says. “We were playing a couple whose marriage was in trouble. But if you look at the footage, the reason for which was unknown to anyone at the time, I kept putting my hand on Robyn’s knee, which I think was a little tell-tale sign that I was very much interested, although she was boldly the one to call me and ask me out.”
Says Robyn: “I actually asked him out for a drink with a bunch of other people – he always deletes that part of the story.
“But at that drinks night, I
couldn’t stop talking to him. He had a big appetite for life. I also found him very open and emotional, and it was good to talk to a man who was in touch with his feelings. I’ve always enjoyed that, although I have got a little bit sick of it over the years!” To which Wayne adds: “I’ve got a lot of feelings!”
That’s not to say, though, that there wasn’t some wariness on both Robyn and Wayne’s part.
“We’d both just come out of very long relationships and I had recently moved out with my daughter, Molly [Daniels], who was 2,” says Robyn. “I told Wayne ‘We come as a package deal, and if you want to be with me you have got to be with her as well.’ It took me a few months to let Wayne into our lives.”
On New Year’s Eve 2000, Wayne proposed to Robyn. “I actually thought the Y2K bug was going to kick in and it wouldn’t amount to anything,” he jokes. “But we followed through and eloped that year to Siena in Italy.”
Nineteen years on, Molly is a 24-year-old actor and writer, while Robyn and Wayne’s younger daughter Emily is 17.
“Our girls are both really funny,” says Robyn. “They take great pride in being able to make us laugh, and I’m a particularly good audience for them. We’re super proud.”
Robyn is incredibly proud of the couple’s career, too. “It’s been extraordinary,” she says. “I think we always wanted to write and perform in our own work, but we just did it incrementally. We took the reins and I’m so glad we did.
“Along the way, we’ve made some of our closest and dearest friends on all of the shows – and our hobby really is our work, so we feel so lucky.”