{"id":340192,"date":"2026-03-21T04:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/340192\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T04:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:12:09","slug":"why-mafs-couple-liam-cooper-and-samuel-levi-are-ditching-the-big-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/340192\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mafs couple Liam Cooper and Samuel Levi are ditching the big wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"

While in Auckland, the couple spent lots of time spoiling Samuel\u2019s nephews.<\/p>\n

\"LiamLiam Cooper and Samuel Levi. Photo \/ Woman’s Day<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re my twin\u2019s sons and they live like kings when their uncles are around because they know we\u2019ll give them anything they want!\u201d says Samuel. \u201cLiam is so great with them \u2013 he lets them jump and climb all over him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liam adds: \u201cSamuel\u2019s family is lovely, accepting and open. It\u2019s nice because I come from such a dysfunctional family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuel also used the trip to give Liam a nostalgic tour of his past, pointing out where he grew up in Piha, the schools he went to and other childhood haunts that \u201cprobably bored the hell out of him\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was Liam\u2019s fourth trip to New Zealand, but their first since getting engaged. They stayed at Auckland\u2019s Cordis Hotel, where they told Woman\u2019s Day they won\u2019t have a big, traditional wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already done that on Mafs,\u201d Liam explains. \u201cI genuinely, perhaps naively, thought I was only getting married once, so I invited everyone I wanted to that wedding. Now I feel like I\u2019ve experienced that big ceremony and don\u2019t need to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SamuelSamuel and Liam met by chance at Brisbane\u2019s Big Gay Day in 2021. Photo \/ Woman’s Day<\/p>\n

Samuel agrees: \u201cWe\u2019ll probably elope somewhere beautiful, with a best friend each, then we might share photos to announce it\u2026 Or we might not!\u201d<\/p>\n

After their disastrous matches on Mafs, Samuel and bisexual groom Liam met by chance at Brisbane\u2019s Big Gay Day in 2021<\/a>, months after Liam\u2019s marriage to a woman aired on TV.<\/p>\n

Samuel recalls: \u201cWe hit it off and I spontaneously said yes to a 12-hour road trip with Liam, driving from the Gold Coast to Sydney, where he had a shoot. The rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

They bonded over a shared passion for travel, but the ultimate test was when Samuel packed his bags to stay at Liam\u2019s farm for a week, and a Covid lockdown kept them together for three and a half months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were basically living the whole Mafs experience again, just without the cameras,\u201d Samuel laughs.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe pair bonded over a shared passion for travel. Photo \/ Emily Chalk<\/p>\n

Liam grins: \u201cIf we could survive that, we knew there was something real.\u201d<\/p>\n

When restrictions lifted, Liam left the farm to move to Melbourne to live with Samuel. After a brief but \u201cdramatic\u201d split in 2023, the couple announced their engagement last year and recently bought their first home together.<\/p>\n

Life is busy, with Samuel pouring his energy into his growing beauty brand Luxe Sticks, which has expanded into the US and Canada, while former prison officer Liam works in family violence and homelessness services for indigenous Australians \u2013 meaningful work shaped by his own childhood experiences with domestic violence.<\/p>\n

Recently, Liam reconciled with his mum after 15 years of no contact. She met Samuel three weeks later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Liam says: \u201cHis being there during such a stressful time really showed me how much I love having him in my life. He was a huge help, just being there for me. He\u2019s everything I ever wanted in a partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Samuel is equally effusive about Liam. \u201cHe has the biggest heart. He cares for everyone close to him and he always puts me first \u2013 something he\u2019s taught me to do too. I was quite selfish before. He\u2019s shown me what a loving relationship really is and he has the best sense of humour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both have seen snippets of the new season of Mafs, but say they\u2019re \u201cfar removed\u201d from the series now.<\/p>\n

Liam says:, \u201cI did a little stint on a show, but it\u2019s not my full personality. A lot of people do Mafs these days to build a brand or stay relevant. I actually went on to find love! However, I wouldn\u2019t be quick to judge any of the contestants \u2013 they might be the nicest person getting the worst edits.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While in Auckland, the couple spent lots of time spoiling Samuel\u2019s nephews. Liam Cooper and Samuel Levi. Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3471,95,12889,192,8834,35089,8414,58831,156,1888,1445,191,37226,57876,20409,19652,9610,111,139,69,8244,55536,47895,18916,8214,9871,223,8229,1315,15315,3608,4276],"class_list":["post-340192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-among","tag-and","tag-aotearoa","tag-are","tag-big","tag-cooper","tag-couple","tag-ditching","tag-entertainment","tag-first","tag-friends","tag-here","tag-knot","tag-levi","tag-liam","tag-mafs","tag-married","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-recent","tag-samuel","tag-secretly","tag-sight","tag-sparked","tag-speculation","tag-the","tag-they","tag-trip","tag-wedding","tag-were","tag-why"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}