The twins turn five! JENNY-MAY'S DREAMS FOR HER BOYS

The beloved Breakfast presenter shares another big step in her boys’ lives and the new challenge facing her family

- Rebecca Barry Hill

It’s a clear winter Friday and Jenny-May and Dean Clarkson are midway through explaining the significance of the TV presenter’s new moko (tattoo), a series of stars and birds from her neck to her belly button, when there’s a cacophony of voices downstairs.

The couple’s twin five-year-old boys Te Manahau and Atawhai have arrived home from school, and Atawhai is eager to show Mum his large, swirly lollipop.

Jenny-May gives him a cuddle and gently discourages him in te reo from devouring the treat straightaway – after all, the whole household, including Dean’s parents Maurice and Jocelyn, and Dean’s daughters Libby-Jane, 16, and Leah, 14, aren’t far off heading to dinner at the local restaurant.

It’s a typically upbeat start to the weekend, yet for a few months, it’s been tough.

“It’s been a challenging year,” says the Auckland-based Breakfast host.

Just before the boys were due to start school in March, they’d begun to question their parents’ decision to send them to a Maori- immersion kura, just as they’d started to query Jenny-May’s commitment to speaking to them purely in te reo.

“They’d have friends over and they’d say, ‘Why don’t you speak Maori to them?” she tells.

Jenny-May hadn’t been able to speak Maori as a child and the shame she’d experienced had made her determined for her boys not to feel the same way. Following her own immersion year when she was 38, she’d made it her mission to give the boys their “birthright”, with Dean committing to learning the language as well.