Anthony Ashdown Blurted ‘Marry Me’ After a Golden Girls Line
Anthony Ashdown recalls a 2015 first date in Sydney that turned when Jake quoted The Golden Girls in a homewares store. Ten years later, the pair married in Leura, with Ashdown in a ball gown Jake made.
Anthony Ashdown says the moment he knew he would marry Jake came on a first date in Sydney in 2015, when Jake quoted his favourite TV show, The Golden Girls, and Ashdown blurted out, “Marry me!”
A first date after a breakup
Ashdown, then 33, had come out of a nasty breakup the year before. He had often compromised who he was to keep his ex happy, and he decided he would never change for anyone again.
He matched with Jake, a man 10 years younger, on Grindr. They planned coffee, then an afternoon at Cronulla beach.
On a hot summer morning, Ashdown waited in a coffee shop at Miranda Fair with his heart thumping. It was his first real date since the split, and he felt old. He wondered what this cute young man saw in him.
Cards on the table
Ashdown laid everything out. He was about to become a surrogate father with a lesbian couple, he intended to be part of the child’s life, and he would not accept a partner who took issue with that. Jake was not fazed.
Jake also made him laugh. They traded lines from The Simpsons, Friends, Star Wars and Seinfeld. Meeting another gay man into nerd culture felt revolutionary in 2015, Ashdown writes.
The Golden Girls line
Before the beach, Jake asked Ashdown to come shopping and use gift vouchers that were about to expire. In a homewares store, where Ashdown wanted a new beach towel, Jake began a story. He smirked and said, “OK, picture it, Sicily, 1922 …”
It is the catchphrase of Sophia “Ma” Petrillo in The Golden Girls. Ashdown grew up watching the show curled up with his late grandmother, whose laugh he remembers as a chuckle that hissed through her teeth.
He did a double take. “Oh my God did you just quote Golden Girls at me? Marry me!” he said. Jake chuckled and carried on with the story. Ashdown thought: “I’m gonna marry that boy one day.”
Ten years later
A decade on, they married on an April day in Leura, greener after a week of torrential rain. They had tuxedos made, but Ashdown wanted a ball gown for the bottom half.
Jake had just finished a fashion course and made it by hand. Ashdown walked down the aisle in it and says he felt, for the first time, a true expression of who he was.
Jake is a stepdad to Ashdown’s two daughters. Ashdown says nobody makes him laugh like Jake, and the two never fight. In recent years Ashdown was diagnosed with autism and ADHD.
Take the quizWhat Kind of Holiday Spender Are You? Take the Black Friday QuizStart →- 1Column: 4 Reasons to Eat Dark Chocolate, Dietitians Say
- 2Aspyn Ovard Reveals Daughter Has Terminal Cancer on Mormon Wives
- 3Chrissie Swan, 52, Tears Up Over Secret Surprise While Recovering
- 4Box Office: Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer Rings Up $7.1M on Friday
- 5Banana Man of Linton, Indiana Breaks Silence: “I Like Making People Smile
Lifestyle7 Quiet Habits of Emotionally Intelligent People, According to Psychologists
LifestylePeople Who Don’t Like Celebrating Their Birthday Often Share These 7 Traits
Lifestyle · Food & HealthVitamin D in Winter: Do You Need a Supplement, and How Much?
Lifestyle · Food & HealthWhat Is Seasonal Affective Disorder? Signs, Causes and What Helps
