When Kara got back from overseas, she made me work hard for her love. She’d come to my footy games to support me, but she didn’t really care about sport. I thought I was cool because I was playing footy. I felt like David Beckham, and she was my Posh Spice with her short hair. When the season finished, we spent time together and I tried to get her to commit.

I’d planned to propose to Kara in New York in 2011. She’d thought it was going to happen the year before, when we were in Hawaii, and we had an argument about it, but I didn’t have a ring at the time.

I made up my mind to propose during my off-season in Central Park in a chariot. One went past us and she said it was cheesy and cringe and she didn’t want to ride in it. I thought, “I have the ring in my pocket, what do I do now?” So I hired a rowboat, but she said she was tired and wanted to go back to our hotel. Third time lucky, I booked a restaurant and asked her there. It was the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life.

Kara knows me better than anyone else and we’ve shared good and bad times. We have grown together over last 10 years, moved homes more than 10 times, and have two children [Remi, 10, and son Jesse, 6].

I’m a needy person and quite emotional. My wife is very balanced, like my mum. She takes life in her stride. I can’t imagine my life without her.

I am hosting Gladiators with former Australian netball captain Liz Ellis. I’d never met her, but I’d played netball growing up and knew who she was. From the moment we met, we just got along. She is easy going, relatable, funny and smart.

Beau Ryan will co-host Gladiators on Network 10.

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