Things got really awkward when it was time to meet Tony's parents.
"When things started to get serious with Tony, he introduced me to his mum, but said his dad Martin was off sailing somewhere in the Caribbean. A bit of a free spirit, he and Tony's mum Diane had divorced when Tony and his younger sister were still in primary school," she recalls.
Despite seeing photos, nothing twigged her brain. "It wasn't until after Tony had proposed and we were planning the wedding that things got super awkward."
Martin, the future father-in-law began sailing back to Australia in order to be back for his son's big day. He returned with his much younger girlfriend Marnie.
Tony warned her his dad had a thing "for the young ones".
"I laughed it off and didn't give it a second thought until Martin and Marnie knocked on our front door, a few weeks before the wedding.
"There he stood, a guy I'd had a one-night-stand with a few years earlier. I knew him as Marty, and there was no doubt in my mind it was the same guy. Suddenly I put it all together – Tony's childhood photos, a drunken encounter at the races, sneaking out of his apartment across the road from the marina the next morning so I wouldn't have to give him my number."
She could tell Martin had recognised her too but none of them said a word.
Martin and Marnie sailed away into the sunset not long after the wedding.
"They come home about once a year and I have to endure a polite smiling lunch or two, but that's a small price to pay for keeping our secret. My lips are permanently sealed on that one."