Circus romance ‘WE'RE HEAD OVER WHEELS IN LOVE!'

It’s no stunt – these reality TV stars found “the one” under the big top

-  Hayley McLarin

For most, meeting your partner’s parents is a sure sign your relationship is getting serious. But for circus performer Ivan Sousa, that significant next step was combined with having to tell his bosses that he’d been secretly dating their daughter for the past six months.

But larger-than-life Weber Brothers Circus manager Harry Weber just laughed, telling Ivan there were no secrets under the big top – he’d known for ages – before giving his blessing.

“We’re one big family in the circus. We’re all together 24/7, so it wasn’t really a surprise,” explains Harry’s daughter Kiarnna, the breakout star of new Kiwi reality series The Circus, screening 8pm Saturdays on Bravo.

At 21, Ivan had been working as a flying trapeze artist and acrobatic motorcyclist in his homeland of Brazil when he moved with his father to New Zealand in 2012 to join the famous circus.

“I think I was 13,” fellow performer Kiarnna, now 22, says. “It was at the end of 2015, when he didn’t have any girlfriends and I was older, when we just kind of noticed each other. In the circus, you grow up so fast because you don’t really have people around your age. I never went to high school. My friends were around Ivan’s age.”