HEARTBREAK HOST’S BIG SHAPE-UP
The host wasn’ t going tobeab-staged by the contestants
We were used to hearing his voice on Newstalk ZB, but when broadcaster Mark Dye stepped out from behind the microphone as one of the hosts of Heartbreak
Island, his toned and tanned physique started a whole new kind of conversation.
Who knew the star was hiding washboard abs and bulging biceps under his business shirt? But Mark explains he hasn’t always been in such great shape.
The Aucklander, 32, tells Woman’sDay, “When
I saw the level of the cast on Heartbreak, I decided it was probably time to go to the gym more seriously than I had been. I’ve always been quite skinny, so the goal was to get bigger.”
After four weeks with a personal trainer, Mark, who follows a “mostly vegetarian” diet, added an impressive 3.5cm to the circumference of each arm. He laughs, “My trainer really kicked my a*** and made me feel like I needed to vomit a few times – apparently that’s a good thing!”
Despite a hectic shooting schedule in
sizzling Fiji, he and Heartbreak co-host Matilda Rice, 27, still made time for the gym, hitting g the weights four times a week. . “It was so hot that one training g session felt like two in New Zealand,” tells Mark.
After filming wrapped on the TVNZ 2 series early this year, the broadcaster admits that he “went nuts” with beer and fatty food, confessing, “I couldn’t actually tell you what happened between mid-February and March because I was drunk and just causing mischief everywhere.”
But now Mark is back busting a gut in the gym. “I still think I’m too skinny, and I want to get thicker and bigger in the shoulders, so I’m back working with my personal trainer,” he says.
Meanwhile, though Matilda suffered from anxiety and sleepless nights over the criticism the hosting duo received for ranking contestants by popularity and appearance on the reality dating show, Mark wasn’t fazed.
“I did two years of talk-back radio, where I got told to eff off and die on an almost daily basis. A few people annoyed about us showing modern dating on TV is nothing!”
Mark even took on the haters in a blog post, writing, “That’s how people date now. Hundreds have declined me on Tinder because of the way my eyes are deposited in my face and the size of my ears in proportion to my nose!” Mark, who once dated Funny
Girls star Kimberley Crossman, says he’s currrently enjoying the single life, and is focusing on work and travel. He grins, “My 30s have been pretty amazing so far and hopefully they’ll continue in the same way.”