Hide confirms wedding bells set to ring

Rodney Hide and his fiancée Louise Crome. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

As turmoil surrounds his party, wedding bells are on the horizon for Act leader Rodney Hide.

Mr Hide has been seeing retired squash player Louise Crome, who is 21 years his junior, since 2007.

Yesterday he confirmed that the pair are engaged.

"While we have shared this very happy occasion with family and close friends, we chose not to make a public announcement, considering this to be a personal matter," Mr Hide said in a statement to the Herald.

"I fully accept my actions as a politician are quite properly open to public examination, but Louise and I are hoping to keep our private life just that, out of the public eye."

He did not say when or where the wedding would be, and did not want to comment further.

A few months ago Mr Hide divorced his former wife Jiuan Jiuan Kok, whom he married in 1983. They had separated in early 2007.

Yesterday Ms Kok wished Mr Hide and Ms Crome all the best for the future, but she said she was still waiting on a financial settlement from Mr Hide and she urged him to clear up the matter quickly.

"I just want to put the past behind me and I would like him to do the decent thing and tidy up the matters. It was very easy for the man to pack up and leave, but for the wife who helped him, his career, looked after his family - he was largely an absentee father and husband. I did my best for him and his career."

Mr Hide met Ms Crome, 32, in 2006 during the time he was competing in Dancing With the Stars.

He donated his personal fee for appearing on the show to the Remuera Rackets Club, which used the money to launch a fund to support its top players, one of whom was Ms Crome.

Ms Crome, who declined to comment yesterday, was a fulltime squash player from 2006, peaking at number 22 in the world rankings in August 2008.

She won the Vietnam Open and the Welsh Open in 2008 and the Finnish Open in 2007. She retired last year.

She hit the headlines last year after Mr Hide was criticised for taking her with him on taxpayer-funded trips to Europe and Hawaii.

He apologised and repaid $22,000.

The Act Party has not being having as happy a time as its leader.

In August the caucus voted to dump Heather Roy as deputy leader, replacing her with John Boscawen.

Last month MP David Garrett quit the party and Parliament in disgrace after it was revealed he had a previous assault conviction - which he has been appealing - and had used a dead child's identity to obtain a passport.

His replacement, Hilary Calvert, is one of several speakers at Act's Wellington regional conference on Sunday.