Brad and Shannon bonded over their shared sense of humour and strong work ethic. Photo / Felicity Jean
Brad and Shannon bonded over their shared sense of humour and strong work ethic. Photo / Felicity Jean
The rugby star and his doctor fiancee plan to wed in New Zealand.
It only took one week into her New Zealand adventure for Irish doctor Shannon Halpin to bag a hunky All Black for a tour guide – one so good, she didn’t want to leave!
The gorgeous starof new TVNZ docuseries Diary of a Junior Doctor was exiting a Mexican restaurant in Havelock North when she caught the eye of Chiefs and All Blacks player Brad Weber.
“I was like, ‘Far out, that girl’s gorgeous!’” Brad, 34, laughs as the now-engaged couple chat to Woman’s Day from Paris.
“I was stalking the restaurant’s Instagram later that night and she’d posted a story, so I slipped into her DMs.”
Offering to show Shannon around, it was the start of a cute holiday romance. But Shannon, 30, had every intention of returning to Ireland, where she grew up and began pursuing obstetrics and gynaecology. She arrived in Aotearoa in 2018 to continue training during a one-year working holiday.
Shannon stars in the new TVNZ docuseries 'Diary of a Junior Doctor'. Photo / Woman's Day
Meanwhile, Brad had grown up with his dad and grandpa playing rugby in Hawke’s Bay. He loved the sport himself but never dreamed he’d rock an All Blacks jersey. While studying sports technology, he was thrilled to land a job with the Chiefs, then score an All Blacks spot.
Brad says: “I’m the smallest guy in every rugby team I’ve played in, so to be a professional rugby player, let alone an All Black, is a miracle!”
Hilariously, Shannon doesn’t follow the sport and spent her first match cheering on the wrong player.
“The smallest player was number 10, so I assumed that was Brad!” she laughs.
As they continued dating, the pair bonded over their shared sense of humour and strong work ethic.
“I loved how committed she was to her career because that’s what I was like,” explains Brad. “The only difference is my job doesn’t have life-or-death consequences!”
Long-distance love was a tough adjustment for the pair. Photo / Felicity Jean
Recognising each other’s devotion to their careers was why it became a no-brainer for Brad to accept an offer to play for Stade Francais in the French Top 14, while Shannon headed to Auckland to continue training at Middlemore Hospital.
“I felt like I was going backwards,” admits Shannon. “We’d set up a home together, then suddenly I was leaving our space, moving in with a housemate and didn’t have Brad to come home to or cook meals with. My weekends were spent going to games supporting Brad, then that was all taken away, which was a shock. I had to build new friendships to fill my time. I realised how much we’d built a life together that was now gone.”
The couple took turns visiting each other, and it helped that Shannon was flat out with work. However, training with the extra responsibility of becoming a senior registrar, plus the added pressure of having cameras, strangers and TV viewers watching her at work, saw her anxiety skyrocket.
“It’s a really stressful job,” admits Shannon. “Women expect successful labours with healthy babies, and you’re responsible for that. Letting someone down can be life-altering. You’re like, ‘This baby has to come out and be OK’, but more so with people filming! I didn’t realise how stressful it would be.
More than a year of long-distance love had made Brad realise Shannon was the one. Photo / Woman's Day
“I would FaceTime Brad going, ‘This is a disaster. I’m so anxious.’ He was grounding, saying, ‘You’re good at your job. Take a deep breath.’”
She also relied on coping methods like not checking patient records from home. But she ultimately crashed.
Shannon reveals: “I was the most overwhelmed I’ve ever been in medicine – burnt out and having nightmares about patients. Or I’d be in the shower thinking, ‘Did I prescribe that?’ and then texting the on-call doctor. I wasn’t coping.”
Cue a six-month break with Brad in France. By then, more than a year of long-distance love had made Brad realise Shannon was “the one”.
“She gave me so much support as a rugby player in New Zealand,” says Brad. “I took that for granted until I was over here preparing for games by myself and with no one to come home to afterwards when you’re on a big adrenaline spike.
Brad blindsided Shannon with a dazzling diamond ring from South Africa. Photo / Felicity Jean
“I underappreciated her support and figured I should probably stop teasing her about how many more exams she has to pass before I propose!”
While home in January, Brad organised a Coromandel getaway, where he blindsided Shannon with a dazzling diamond ring from South Africa. She hadn’t suspected a thing when he suggested they book a private chef to cook them dinner or when he slipped into a dressy shirt.
Nor did she click that the “free manicure add-on” she was offered during a massage the previous day was thanks to Brad calling the clinic and paying for it, so she’d have gorgeous nails for the big moment.
Taking a pre-dinner beach stroll, Brad began babbling about crabs while attempting to direct Shannon towards his hidden photographer.
“He was telling me to look at the ocean and just not being himself,” recalls Shannon. “Then he started saying something nice and I realised, ‘Oh, he’s proposing!’”
Shannon immediately said yes. Photo / Felicity Jean
Brad acknowledged how much the couple had overcome and asked if Shannon was willing to continue that for life. She immediately said yes.
And while they’re yet to take their vows to support each other through sickness and health, that’s already been put to the test in Paris, where Brad suffered a traumatic injury days after Shannon’s arrival.
Breaking his leg and dislocating his ankle during a game, he freaked out seeing his foot turned 180° the wrong way.
“You start thinking about life after rugby,” he confides. “Or how if I had kids one day, I’d want to be mobile and run around with them.”
Luckily, “Nurse Shannon was here!” laughs the doctor, who helped Brad through six weeks of being laid up.
He’s now back training and in rehab, with hopes of being good to go for the next season.
But while Shannon still experiences nightmares about work, she’s otherwise loving Paris life – doing Pilates, planning trips to Greece and chilling in Brad’s apartment overlooking the Eiffel Tower.
She’ll return to New Zealand in July to continue training, at which point Brad will only have a few months left in France. The pair will then wed in 2027, with hopes for beachside clifftop nuptials.
While Shannon may work with babies daily, it hasn’t put her off starting a family.
“I would’ve said no if you’d asked me 12 months ago,” she admits. “But suddenly I’m like, ‘Brad, we should have kids’. He had always said he’d like some, but that it’s up to me. I don’t know what’s come over me. It must be all this time off!”
Diary of a Junior Doctor screens 7.30pm Tuesdays and streams on TVNZ+.
