Aroha Nui's Iripa & Jess 'A SILENT KILLER NEARLY TOOK OUR SON'

The breakout stars of the new TV series reveal the family struggle that will always haunt them

- Hayley Barnett

Bay of Plenty marriage celebrants Iripa Rangi and Jess Phillps love their work. That's evident in the new TV series Aroha Nui: Say I Do, which follows the lives of Māori wedding officiants as they guide couples to the altar.

Jess and Iripa's passion for helping people to celebrate the beginning of their journey together is as touching as the ceremonies themselves, but it was near the start of their own marriage that Iripa, 32, and Jess, 30, came close to tragedy, a time they're often reminded of when new couples talk about starting their families.

Three years ago, when the bilingual Papamoa couple found out they were expecting their son Rameka, they were over the moon. Tips and words of wisdom from whanau and friends came pouring in, but it was one particular piece of advice that stuck in Jess' mind - while working as an occupational therapist, she was warned by a physio about a condition called cholestasis.

"My co-worker had suffered from it herself and said to me, 'If you get itchy hands and feet, talk to your midwife! I'd never heard of it and thought it was a strange thing to say, but it stuck in my brain."

Jess knew it was normal to feel a bit itchy while expecting, when everything is stretching and expanding, but partway through her own pregnancy, she developed a slight itch on one foot.

"It's actually not a typical presentation of cholestasis," explains Jess. "People are usually so itchy, they need to put their hands in buckets of ice and they can't sleep. But I kept thinking about the warning".