FOR TODAY\u2019S FULL MEDIA INSIDER COLUMN SEE HERE<\/a><\/p>\nMany in the Taup\u014d community are also in mourning, with hundreds of messages of love and support for his family coming from local businesses and individuals, including police, civil defence, McDonald\u2019s and charities such as Kids Greening Taup\u014d.<\/p>\n
While Leiataua spent a career in the public eye (and ears) and became one of Taup\u014d\u2019s most recognisable faces through his radio show and community work, Hall \u2013 herself a well-known real estate agent in town \u2013 describes a fiercely private man.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis whole world was around his kids, and I \u2013 family was the centre of everything. Most people in Taup\u014d don\u2019t even know where we live. They know the area, but not the address, because we just really keep to ourselves, which is nice when we\u2019re both in the public face all day long.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018A full love story\u2019<\/p>\n
Hall and Leiataua\u2019s story began on New Year\u2019s Eve in 1993, when a mutual friend, who worked at More FM, introduced them over a radio lunch at Victoria Park Market in Auckland.<\/p>\n
Hall says it was love at first sight.<\/p>\n
After lunch, and after spending the afternoon discreetly questioning their mutual friend about Leiataua, Hall discovered he had been doing the same about her.<\/p>\n
The pair caught up again later that evening and saw in the New Year inside the radio studio, where Leiataua was on air.<\/p>\n
They had their first date the next evening at a picnic spot overlooking St Heliers and have rarely been apart since. \u201cWe were just joined at the hip. It was seriously love at first sight. There was never any question.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair have two children \u2013 Kyzsana, now 30, and Bronson, 27.<\/p>\n
![\"Radio]()
Radio host Andrew Leiataua, Leanne Hall and their children, left, Kyzsana, now 30, and Bronson, 27, second from right.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe called me honey all the time, and I called him honey,\u201d Hall says. \u201cWhen our daughter was little, she went into daycare one day \u2013 she was about 3 \u2013 and they had to do a story on the family. She said, \u2018my Mum\u2019s name is Leanne and my Dad\u2019s name is Honey\u2019. For years, she thought it was Honey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hall said she was attracted to Leiataua\u2019s humility, deep family values and an ability to listen. \u201cHe had this really intense stare. When you talked to him, you could tell he was actually listening. He\u2019d let you talk. He wouldn\u2019t step in.\u201d<\/p>\n
He could command a crowd of thousands as an event MC, she said, then return home as the humble man who loved karaoke \u2013 Elvis Presley, Ronan Keating and 80s music among the go-tos \u2013 terrible dad jokes, picnics and romantic com movies.<\/p>\n
His own romantic streak continued throughout their three decades together.<\/p>\n
Only a few weeks ago, the pair were on holiday in Fiji. At sunset one evening, Leiataua positioned their chairs towards the horizon, put an earbud in Hall\u2019s ear and another in his own and played a playlist of music they had loved when they first met.<\/p>\n
Later, armed with champagne and another playlist, the pair staged their own dance party on their hotel balcony. \u201cHe was such a romantic,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
Although widely referred to as husband and wife, they never formally married. Leiataua bought her a wedding band during an early More FM trip to Hong Kong, with fellow host Jeremy Corbett helping him choose it.<\/p>\n
The children came along \u2013 small miracles in themselves after Hall had been told she might not be able to have kids \u2013 and a wedding ceased to matter. \u201cWe never put us first. It was always about the kids,\u201d Hall said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really beautiful love story and I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.\u201d <\/p>\n
Family dinners were non-negotiable, whatever the competing demands of work. Sundays were protected as family time.<\/p>\n
Leiataua celebrated his children\u2019s ambitions and achievements and was Hall\u2019s greatest champion as her own career grew \u2013 initially as an executive assistant in Auckland, before moving into property management and ultimately as a successful real estate agent.<\/p>\n
He helped with her marketing, branding, social media and videos and quietly blocked out time in her diary for the couple when life became too busy. \u201cHe was honestly my best supporter in everything in life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That devotion extended across Taup\u014d.<\/p>\n
![\"Andrew]()
Andrew Leiataua had been with More FM for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n
Leiataua did not just promote community causes on air. He raised money, delivered food, mowed a neighbour\u2019s lawn and collected the kids or their friends in the middle of the night when they needed a safe ride home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he said, \u2018Please call us anytime if you need anything\u2019, he actually meant it,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n
The public response to his death has stunned the family. With Leiataua back at home this week, Hall said a constant stream of visitors had been paying their respects. Their lounge resembled a florist shop.<\/p>\n
She and the children always knew Leiataua was loved and respected, but hadn\u2019t understood the depth of feeling for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not until something like this happens that you sit back and go, \u2018Wow\u2019. We just had no idea people felt that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
More FM, she said, had been \u201cincredible\u201d, describing the station and its people as another family.<\/p>\n
A celebration of Leiataua\u2019s life will be held on Saturday \u2013 Hall knows the scale of the event would have made her fiercely private partner uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can hear him in my head going, \u2018Honey, no\u2019,\u201d she said. \u201cBut sometimes we just have to, honey, because the community needs this. They need the time to grieve. As a family, we\u2019re grieving as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hall recalled leaving for work last Saturday morning. Leiataua was editing videos for her real estate work in their home office when she kissed him on the forehead.<\/p>\n
He stood, hugged her and said: \u201cBye, honey. Love you. Have a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a ritual repeated every day. \u201cEverywhere we went, he\u2019d hold my hand,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps their inseparability is best captured in the family photographs now being gathered for Saturday\u2019s tribute.<\/p>\n
Hall can find remarkably few pictures of Leiataua alone. \u201cBecause every photo of Andrew, I\u2019m in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew Leiataua will be honoured this Saturday at the Great Lake Centre, Taup\u014d. Doors open at 12pm with a service starting at 12.30pm.<\/p>\n
FOR TODAY\u2019S FULL MEDIA INSIDER COLUMN SEE HERE<\/a><\/p>\nEditor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve 100% lost the love of my life, which is hard \u2013 you only have one, right?\u201d she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[74,14645,634,156,62298,60083,25630,2936,1073,130,111,139,69,4965,13744,20838,159090],"class_list":["post-631625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-after","tag-beloved","tag-death","tag-entertainment","tag-fm","tag-heartfelt","tag-hosts","tag-insider","tag-media","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-radio","tag-shock","tag-tribute","tag-widows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631625","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=631625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}