Two By Two: Gillie + Marc Schattner
Dubbo Photo News
She was a nurse turned international model. He worked in advertising. A chance meeting in a Hong Kong lift sparked a love story that’s spanned four continents and more than two decades and has led them on a journey of artistic discovery. Gillie and Marc Schattner’s is a romance forged in respect and friendship.
GILLIE SCHATTNER
We were both engaged to other people, but when I saw Marc in that lift, my heart stopped. I was 22 and on a modelling job at the Regent Hotel in Hong Kong. He was in advertising. I fell for him during the shoot, which took all night. When I called him a couple of weeks later about the tear sheet, we decided we’d catch up for a drink so he could give them to me. We stayed out all night and at the end of the night, he said, “Well, this is tricky…I really like you.” I said “I know – same!” A week later we decided to go to Nepal together and we were staying in this little hotel at the base of the Himalayas and we asked the hotel staff what do people do when they come to Nepal? The staff said, well, a lot of people come here to get married – and we just looked at each other and said, okay. We had our Hindi costumes made, and we were married in a traditional Hindu wedding – a week after we met.
MARC SCHATTNER
When I met Gillie, I was engaged to marry someone else – a writer. And I was, like a lot of people I think, just accepting of the fact that I wasn’t ever going to find the perfect person and that I’d have to compromise a lot.
Gillie put a tick on all my lists of what I was looking for as the perfect partner. I couldn’t believe I’d found this companion – my ideal dream. I didn’t think such a person was out there and then, bang, there she was.
