Jamie Yeo: This marriage is for keeps
by Germaine Lim
WE ARE getting (re)married!
When TV host Jamie Yeo ties the knot with her boyfriend of 15 months, Mr Thorsten Nolte, it won’t be the first time both are walking down the aisle.
Yeo, 33, had a much-publicised split from Class 95 radio deejay Glenn Ong in February last year. They tied the knot in 2004.
But few know that Mr Nolte was once married too.
The 35-year-old Englishman had kept a low profile since The New Paper broke the news about their budding romance in March last year. But on Monday, he agreed to speak to us in an exclusive interview.
He told us that he split with his American wife of two years just before he relocated from the UK to Singapore.
My Paper reported Mr Nolte’s and Yeo’s engagement last month, after Yeo announced it on her regular Stomp Star Blog.
Yeo is adamant that “this is it”. She told The New Paper: “You live and you learn.
You learn what you want and don’t like. This is for keeps.”
Even though she admitted that she is not officially divorced – she would only say it will be finalised “soon” – Yeo and her fiance are planning to exchange their vows in December, she told us.
She is prepared for tongues to wag.
Her defence: “The timing’s just nice – it’s been more than a year. We’re at the point where we just know.
“You can’t worry about what people think and have to say.”
Mr Nolte was posted here 21/2 years ago as the Asia Pacific managing director of marketing conglomerate MEC Interaction.
He now runs a marketing firm, Upfront Media, which he co-owns with Yeo.
After meeting through a mutual friend at The Prodigy concert at Fort Canning Park in early February last year, they made their first public appearance as a couple at the adidas Originals 60th Anniversary House Party.
This was just three weeks after Ong, 39, announced his split with Yeo on his Morning Express radio show.
Ong told us in March last year that they had led mostly separate lives since April 2008 despite still living together.
Calling his first marriage “a mistake”, Mr Nolte said: “I tried to fix it but it didn’t work.
“(After the divorce) I went through 11/2 years of not being with anyone and finding my feet again.”
When asked, Yeo said she hadn’t told Ong personally about the engagement because “there’s no need to”.
Relations between the ex-es were tense as both had exchanged bitter words via the press following their break-up.
When Yeo first announced her relationship with Mr Nolte, Ong said in an earlier interview with The New Paper that she might have been on a rebound, saying she was someone who could not be alone.
In response, Yeo huffed to The New Paper : “That’s Glenn... He exaggerates a little. I can imagine he’d probably said those things with a smirk on his face.”
But Yeo said things are “better now”.
When contacted, Ong told The New Paper that he’d learnt about Yeo’s engagement through a friend.
He said: “We’re over. She can do whatever she wants. I’m happy for her. She’s moved on and a chapter’s closed.”
Ong is now dating fellow Class 95 deejay Jean Danker . As to whether marriage is on the cards, Ong said: “It’s crazy to rush to the altar for the third time.”
As for Yeo, although she and Mr Nolte had discussed marriage, the proposal still came as a surprise to her.
The Englishman had whisked her off to Tokyo for an impromptu getaway on business class, wined and dined her at a Michelin three-star restaurant to celebrate her 33rd birthday mid-last month.
She didn’t suspect a thing.
Yeo wrote on her Stomp Star Blog that they were at a wishing well at a shrine when he “took out the loveliest, most sparkly ring I’d ever seen and asked me to marry him”.
But things almost didn’t go as planned.
Mr Nolte said he had ordered a 1.5-carat princess-cut ring from a San Francisco jeweller two months before the proposal. He declined to reveal the cost of the ring, saying only that “it was quite a lot”.
He had initially planned to propose in an area where 1,000 cherry blossom trees grew, according to a travel guide.
But when they turned up, “there were trees, just not sakura trees”, he said.
So he had to come up with a contingency plan immediately – propose at a wishing well. It worked perfectly.
Yeo wrote on her blog: “I said yes. Of course I did. I had found myself a man that most girls search their entire lives for...”
With just seven months before the big day, the lovebirds are not fussing about the wedding to which only about 100 guests will be invited.
No big wedding
Yeo said: “We’ve both had big weddings the last time. Everything happened in a blur. We want to keep this to just close friends and family.”
The wedding will be held here – The White Rabbit restaurant is an option – or Bali. Local designer Wykidd Song has offered to design Yeo’s dress.
Yeo may even do her own make-up because “I feel I do my own face best”. She will get a professional to do her hair.
While Mr Nolte has met her parents, Yeo hasn’t met his family, though she exchanges e-mail messages occasionally with his mother and sister.
The couple have planned for little ones, too. Yeo likes girls but Mr Nolte does not have preferences.
Yeo said: “It’s something we both want. We’re ready for it.”
