By Jenny Brown
Remember the cute kid who starred as Arthur MacArthur in Hey Dad..! and sold everything from cars and cookies to pizza and super-soft toilet paper in commercials?
Back in the ’90s, Matthew Krok was everywhere — tucking into baked beans, beaming, braces gleaming. And then he disappeared, as suddenly as he shot to fame.
“People thought I must have got whacked out or washed up,” grins newlywed Matthew, who actually grew up to become a Mormon missionary and engineering student.
“To be honest, it was kind of a relief when Hey Dad..! finished. I saw it as a chance just to be a kid again and concentrate on school, which was something my parents always stressed pretty strongly.
“I didn’t dream of stardom. I never had a passion for acting — it was something that happened. I’m one of five kids, and four of us had our photos taken and got signed up by an agent.
“We just wanted to earn a bit of pocket money for a family trip to the States, and everything kind of snowballed from there. I was the lucky one; work fell into my lap. I was in the right place at the right time, and I guess I had the right look.”
To his wife Jade, a fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he’s still adorable — although Matthew today, at 25, is barely recognisable as that tubby little TV personality.
“I never saw him in Hey Dad..! because I was a bit too young. My older sister watched it,” 19-year-old student nurse Jade explains. “But my parents bought me the DVDs for my birthday, and I thought Matthew was cute!
“It was like watching home movies of him when he was a kid,” Jade says.
Just as Matthew’s TV career fell effortlessly into place — signed for a three-year stint in Hey Dad..! after being spotted on a Sorbent ad — so too did his relationship with Jade.
“It’s a cliché, but it’s been like a fairytale,” grins Matthew, whose first on-screen clinch was with a sassy nine-year-old named Delta Goodrem. “I knew Jade liked me, and I was hoping she’d say yes when I proposed, but I was nervous.”
He picked his moment carefully on March 5, at a harbourside park in Sydney’s McMahons Point. Jade, who was about to take him to dinner, remembers it well.
“We were soaking up the view, talking about our feelings, when Matthew suddenly said, ‘Can you feel how fast my heart’s beating?’ Because I’m studying nursing, the first thing that popped into my head was that he must be sick … I was going to have to time his heartbeat! Luckily, I didn’t have a second hand on my watch, or I would have made a complete fool of myself.
“I’m a bit slow to catch on, but when he reached around me to get something out of his bag, I kind of clicked. And then he got down on one knee. I just remember saying ‘wow’ about a thousand times, I didn’t know what else to say, except yes!”
The pair — who met through church and whose families are friends — married at the Sydney Australia Latter-day Saints Temple in Sydney’s north-west, followed by a reception at the Greenwich Chapel.
Jade, stunning in a “Beauty And The Beast-style” dress from the States, and carrying a bouquet of lilies, was attended by her sister Alyce Bennallack and best friend Jade Baird.
Matthew’s best man was his brother Ethan Krok, while Jade’s brother Andrew, who played matchmaker during the couple’s courtship, acted as groomsman. It was an idyllic day, followed by a two-week honeymoon soaking up the sun and learning how to scuba dive in Phuket, Thailand.
For Matthew, now living a stone’s throw from Bondi Beach with his new wife, marriage clearly beats any sitcom stardom, although he’s grateful for the financial security it brought him.
“Luckily, my parents invested my earnings for me when I was a kid. If they’d let me spend it then, I would have been a brat with lots of Ninja Turtles dolls and Lego!
“As it is, the money will be helpful when Jade and I go to buy a house. I’m due to graduate from uni next year, fingers crossed, and we’re both from big families so we want to have kids one day.”
And the pair couldn’t be more delighted that they are going to be together for ever.
“We’re not just married until death, but married into the next life. That’s our church’s belief.”
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