In a world of dating apps and swiping right, actress Penny McNamee and her husband Matt Tooker prove real-life fairytales still exist.
After falling in love at a school musical camp in 1999, Penny married her high school sweetheart Matt Tooker ten years later in 2009.
“It was 1999 at our school music camp. I’d just moved to the school, Matt was in the orchestra playing the French horn – if it can get any nerdier – and I was in the choir,” Penny, who plays Tori Morgan on Home And Away, told New Idea of their fateful first meeting.
“I adored him off the bat. I was a ridiculous 16-year-old girl who totally thought he was dreamy.”
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“She was confident and bubbly,” her husband, who works in marketing, added.
However their road to romance hasn’t come without some bumps with the pair taking a brief hiatus after two years of dating.
“We were only 19 and we both knew we had to go off and live our lives – we wanted to study and travel,” the 37-year-old starlet revealed of their split.
“Even though we really did love each other, we decided to break up, which was heartbreaking.”
Eventually, they got back together and the rest is history!
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The couple share two gorgeous children together, three-year-old son Jack and one-year-old daughter Neve.
The mother-of-two admits her relationship couldn’t be more opposite to her on-screen character Tori’s love life.
“She’s a total commitment-phobe and I’m the complete opposite. I married my high school sweetheart, love being married and love having a family,” she explained to entertainment website stuff.
Keep scrolling as we take a look at Penny and Matt’s love story, in pictures
Throwback
Penny shared a sweet throwback with her husband in July as he cerebrated his 38th birthday. “On this day 20 years ago, celebrating Matt’s 18th Birthday,” she write along with a cry laughing emoji. “Happy Birthday my love, you just keep getting better. Particularly your haircuts,” she finished.
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Penny and Matt share a sweet moment on their wedding day.
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To celebrate their ten-year wedding anniversary, Penny posted this beautiful throwback and mused: “Ten years ago today we said ‘I do’.
I do to…
Renovating a terrible house.
Moving to New York for 4 years with no money, no visas and no friends.
Quitting steady jobs to chase dreams and start a business.
Financially supporting each other when the chips were down.
Navigating infertility together.
Getting up to babies in the night.
Laughing our faces off at jokes only we get.
Asking and learning how to love each other better. Every day.”
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The couple are the proud parents to son Jack, three, and daughter Neve, one
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Look at these two! Big brother Jack dotes on his little sister.
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“I adored him off the bat. I was a ridiculous 16-year-old girl who totally thought he was dreamy,” Penny has said of her first impressions of her now husband.
Home and Away’s Penny McNamee shows off her hidden talent by playing the piano and singing in isolation
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Young love: The pair met in 1999 at a high school musical camp. Yes that’s right, it’s like a real-life Glee episode.
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All these years later, they still look like love-struck teenagers. Here the glamorous duo strike a pose at the 2017 TV WEEK Logies.
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Bumping beauty! Penny, Matt (and Jack just out of shot) all dolled up for a friend’s wedding shortly before Neve’s arrival last year.
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“We moved house today. The most stressful and exhausting of days… but he still had me in stitches in the midst of it all.” Aww, we love that these two can keep laughing through all of life’s ups and downs.
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Penny, Matt and Jack hit the beach.
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Round the twist: The husband and wife lap up the sunshine during a family holiday to Byron Bay.
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“She was confident and bubbly,” Matt has previously said of his first impressions of his wife.
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Like many young couples who fall in love during their teens, the pair briefly split after two years of dating.
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“We were only 19 and we both knew we had to go off and live our lives – we wanted to study and travel,” the Home And Away star explained.
“Even though we really did love each other, we decided to break up, which was heartbreaking.”
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Thankfully, these two were destined to be together.
