Sometimes you’ve just got to be cruel to be kind. At least, this was the strategy TV presenter Ryan Bridge adopted when he proposed to his beau of four years. Photo / Woman's Weekly
In a desperate bid to keep his romantic plans a surprise, the popular broadcaster admits that whenever his partner “skirted around the edges” of any wedding talk, Ryan Bridge would feign no interest, quickly changing the conversation.
“Which isn’t a nice thing to do is it?” laughs the AM host, sharing his exciting news exclusively with the Weekly. “[It meant] we didn’t really talk about getting married at all, and perhaps sounds weird. I just always knew I wanted to propose to him and for him to have that experience as a surprise.”
And as much as Bridge would like to introduce this ‘handsome mystery fiancé’ to the world, his 36-year-old partner – a former professional athlete who now works in construction – prefers to maintain his anonymity.
The pair showed their commitment to each other early on by buying a 1900s railway cottage and becoming fur-parents to gorgeous beagle Fanny. Bridge says he picked up on how important marriage was to his partner, so two years ago, he started secretly sending money to his mum, while he saved up for a ring.
“The main thing for me was ‘How am I going to get this ring without him knowing, when we have a joint bank account?’” he explains. “My partner loves designing jewellery – that’s his thing – so I didn’t want to get it wrong or buy any old ring.
“What I decided to do was get a rather inexpensive ring made to propose with, which I designed with our initials on it, and then he could design something nice himself afterwards.”
With the proposal ring made, Bridge waited for the perfect opportunity to propose over summer in Wairarapa, where his partner grew up.
Unfortunately, it didn’t happen on that trip. Then in a rom-com level plot twist, Bridge’s partner dramatically fainted at the gym in March. It left them both very shaken but motivated Ryan to get the proposal sorted.
“He passed out and hit his head on the concrete on a Friday morning while I was on-air,” recalls the political journalist-turned-broadcaster. “The gym owner showed me the CCTV footage of it happening, which I probably shouldn’t have watched as it was quite traumatic. He was lying on the ground out cold for 20 seconds before someone ran up to help him.
“He went to the hospital to get checked out and thankfully there was no concussion and he was OK. That’s when I was like, ‘I’ve got to stop waiting and just ask… before he dies on me!’”
Two days later, the couple headed away on a camping trip to scenic Tāwharanui beach, north of Auckland.
Among the few people who knew Bridge’s was about to pop the question were one of his brothers and his mum (“because she had to channel the money laundering”), as well as Newshub colleague and best friend Mike McRoberts and wife Heidi.
“I was freaking out the whole way there!” recounts 35-year-old Bridge. “Heading north, there was a lot of traffic and my partner was getting quite upset about it, so I was trying to calm him down because I wanted him to be in a good frame of mind.”
Once they arrived, the pair was able to relax. With a cheeky bottle of wine hidden in a beach towel and the ring firmly ensconced in the pocket of his shorts, Bridge had an idea to propose in the ocean.
“It wasn’t a particularly nice night,” says. “There was no sunset because it was about to rain – so when I suggested going for a swim, he sort of looked at me like, ‘Why would we do that?’
“But once we got in the water and started crashing around in the waves, it was amazing. There was no one on the beach – just us. I got down on one knee in the water… and he said yes! It was beautiful and emotional. We both cried.”
Afterwards, Bridge’s fiancé admitted to him that he’d had a feeling that something was going on – hence he’d agreed to go for a swim, even though the weather was fairly cold.
The jubilant couple made a Zoom call to both sets of parents, who were all “very happy”.
“I’d actually tried to ask his dad for his blessing at Christmastime when we were visiting Wairarapa,” reveals Bridge. “We were driving around the family farm in his ute and I started to get very nervous about bringing it up. Instead of saying, ‘I want to ask your son to marry me – do I have your blessing?’, I said, ‘I’m thinking of marrying your son’, which wasn’t actually a question!
“His dad quickly responded with, ‘Well, I suppose it’s the next logical thing’, and I said, ‘Yeah’, and then we went back to talking about the land,” he says, shaking his head. “I did want to follow-up with, ‘And is that okay with you?’ but the moment was lost.”
Bridge and his partner were first introduced at an Auckland bar in 2019 through mutual friend Sarah Stuart, the head of the wardrobe department at Warner Bros Discovery.
“It was Halloween, so he was dressed as a zombie and I thought he was very handsome in a non-threatening way!” says Ryan.
The two talked “awkwardly” all night, shuffling closer to each other, before having a dance and swapping numbers. “He didn’t know I was a talkback radio host [at the time]. We had our first kiss that night, but it wasn’t until about four months later that we actually went out again. I don’t know why it took us so long!”
As their love blossomed, Bridge quickly realised that this relationship was different to his previous ones – “It’s cheesy but it’s that old line that says, ‘When you know, you know.’”
Waikanae-born Bridge describes his fiancé as the kindest, most caring and thoughtful guy. It’s also a classic case of opposites attracting.
“I’m very much a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants guy,” says Bridge. “I’m messy and disorganised, so the only time we fight is when we’re going to the airport. He’s asking if my bag is packed and wanting to get there four hours early. I’m like, ‘Let’s get there five minutes before the flight’.
“He was very driven and disciplined [when he was an athlete], so has always operated his life on a tight schedule, but I think his drive was one of the things that really endeared me to him. He wants to succeed and wants to support me to succeed.”
Back in 2021, a besotted Bridge told the Weekly that when his alarm went off for work at 2.45am, his partner also woke up to say good morning, and left romantic notes for him on the kitchen bench.
Is that still the case?
“No that’s finished,” he says, with a wave of his hand. “The notes are no longer left. He does not get out of bed and I no longer go in to give him a kiss goodbye. The honeymoon period is over … the reality of my hours have set in.
“He does occasionally prepare my breakfast oats the night before, puts them in milk and in the fridge for me to take in the morning and leaves a banana out. That’s a nice treat to wake up to.
“Mostly, we’re both very affectionate. So there are a lot of hugs.”
Bridge’s fiancé is now charged with being their full-time wedding planner as the couple are looking at tying the knot sometime during winter next year. All they know at this stage is that their beloved pooch will somehow be involved and it’s likely she will trot down the aisle as the ring bearer, with the wedding bands attached to her collar.
“We’ve both agreed that we need to make our wedding a damn good party because our siblings – [including] my two brothers [who] are straight and not married – are currently providing the grandkids for our parents but not a wedding!” he laughs.
As Bridge reflects on life before coming out as gay, he says that a future involving marrying the person he loved seemed unobtainable back then.
“It was always quite a catastrophic thought process for me when I was younger,” he shares. “It was either ‘This secret continues forever’, or sometimes I allowed myself to fantasise about running away to another country, somewhere in Europe or whatever, where maybe I could have my own house and live with a man.
“That was a bit of a dream, where escaping seemed like the only option. And I don’t think I really believed that would happen, so to be here now in this position and be happily engaged, it is amazing. It probably defies everything that I thought was maybe possible.”
The comedian and screen icon is set to make his NZ stand-up debut this July.