How we met: ‘He had a reputation for playing the field. He sounded really dodgy’
Amanda Woodard, 56, is a journalist and Clive Hopkins, 60, is a screenwriter and teacher. They have been together for 23 years and live in Sydney
Amanda and Clive had been hearing about each other for about 10 years before they met. “We had mutual friends and I would always hear about Clive doing this or that, Clive on the picket line or Clive cheating on some girl,” she says, and Clive laughs. “Clive had a reputation for not sticking with girlfriends very long and just playing the field, so I wasn’t keen to meet him at all. He sounded really dodgy.”
“I would hear wonderful things about you,” he says. “That you’d had lives in London and Barcelona, that you were a journalist and artist, and you sounded like someone I’d like to meet. There were several events I remember going to where people would say: ‘Amanda’s meant to be coming’ and then she never did. I was always a bit disappointed.”