Inside Real Housewives star Tessa Hartmann and husband Sascha’s vow renewal

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Not many people who get engaged after just six weeks can say their relationship has gone the distance. But then again, The Real Housewives Of Jersey star Tessa Hartmann and her artist husband Sascha don’t do things like most people.

“We’ve made it to 25 years,” Tessa, 51, tells OK! in our exclusive chat.

And what better way to celebrate such a milestone than with an intimate vow renewal ceremony with their closest friends and family, including children Tessie, 24, Tallia, 22, Johnnie, 16, and Zac, 14, at their Jersey home?

Here, Tessa tells us all about the whirlwind romance that grew into lasting love, how they nearly didn’t make it through the first two years of marriage and why she knows they’ll still be laughing their way through life together when they’re pensioners…


Hi Tessa. What a gorgeous vow renewal ceremony. Why did you want to do it?

We did it to celebrate 25 years of being married. Sascha and I met on a skiing holiday in Switzerland, got engaged after six weeks and married after six months, so the fact that we’ve made it to 25 years is nothing short of miraculous. And it has been a roller-coaster. We’ve been through so much together, which was one of the main reasons I wanted to renew our vows.

Was it something you’d been planning for a while?

When we first got married, Sascha literally arrived in Scotland eight days before the wedding, and in all of our photographs he looks like a startled bunny in the headlights. So we’ve had a long-standing joke that he looks so miserable in our wedding photos that we needed to do it again. Sascha joked, “Well, I’m not doing it for another 25 years!” So I have literally held him to that and made him promise. I’ve been winding him up every year since. [laughs]

Did Sascha need much persuasion?

He was totally up for it because over the last five years there have been so many things going on. I had breast cancer and had chemo, which was exhausting, and before that he got really ill. He had his gallbladder out and got sepsis. He was in bed for the best part of a year and was really poorly. So we both think we’ve got a bit of white heather and we’re so lucky to be alive that we should celebrate and do it again.

So was it very emotional on the day?

Very much so. When I get nervous, I have what looks like a permanent laugh on my face, but there was a fine line between the laughs and the tears coming out. But I was just ecstatic all day. It was one of those days where I felt spoilt and wanted it to go on forever.

Had you written your own vows, or did you make the traditional promises?

A bit of both. We had the Dean of Jersey officiating, which was amazing, as my husband is Jewish but I’m Catholic. He was brilliant. He knows that we’re involved in music, so he gave this great speech with all of these analogies about pop songs and love. Then we said a couple of the traditional vows and a couple of our own as well.

We understand there was a bit of a mix-up with the rings…

We had two new wedding bands and Sascha got them mixed up and put his ring on my finger! I tried to gesture to him to say nobody had noticed, but then he did, and was like, “Oh no! I’ve got it wrong!” That was very funny.

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Is Sascha happy with the photographs this time around?

We were thrilled that the second time around we had a royal snapper and good friend of mine, Matt Porteous, taking the shots – and he even captured Sascha smiling!

Did you incorporate any traditions from your original wedding day?

I wore a single strand of pearls that I originally wore on my wedding day and that were my late mum’s. I found them again when I was going through my things and thought, “That will be perfect.”

How lovely to have a piece of her with you…

Exactly. I felt like she was with me. It was lovely. Also, the weather had been up and down for weeks so I thought I’d get a marquee, just in case, but funnily enough the sun came out when we were actually renewing our vows. My dad was a real Glaswegian joker, and he always used to say, “The sun comes out for the righteous.” I could hear him in my head, laughing.

Speaking of family, was it nice having your children there this time?

It was fantastic. Also, we live in this social media age, and I really wanted to send the message to the kids that although we live in this world where everyone thinks that if you don’t like something, you delete it, there are things you have to work at. You can’t just give up and move on. It was important for us to show them that it’s possible. You go through the good times and the bad times – and we’re still together.

Twenty-five years is no mean feat. Have there been lots of challenges along the way?

It’s funny, as our first two years of marriage were horrendous. The most difficult ever. We’ve often joked that if we got through them, we can get through anything.

What happened?

We were married, moved countries and set up a business. It was all too much. And our cultures are very different. I’m from Glasgow and Sascha has got Italian in him. My mum and dad were great, but my siblings didn’t approve, and his friends couldn’t believe that he’d upped and left for some random girl he’d met in a nightclub on a skiing holiday. There were a million things against us. But, because we got through those two years, we’ve just kept going. We’ve grown and evolved together and as long as we keep making each other laugh, we’re still alright.

What has helped get you through the toughest times?

Respect and laughter. Our characters are the complete opposite. I am glass half-full Glaswegian banter and he is an artist, deep, and questions God and belief systems. He’s the opposite of me, but opposites attract and we stimulate each other. I can’t ever imagine us not working. We’ll be 90 and still laughing.

You had quite the whirlwind romance and got engaged after just six weeks. How do you look back on that time now?

Honestly, if one of my daughters came and said that to me now, I think I might lock her in a room or something! I can’t explain why we did it, but it just felt absolutely right. I know you read about this in books and stuff, but when we met I really did feel a spark.

How did your parents react?

I wasn’t even going to go on the holiday, but then I went out to meet my parents, who were there. On the night I met Sascha, I woke my mum up in the middle of the night and said, “I’ve met someone in a club.” My dad said, “Are you joking? You’ve woken us up to tell us this? What are you on?” But my mum said she knew. We got up, had a wee cup of tea, and I told her all about him. Then two days later I invited him to join us for a New Year’s Eve dinner. We went all in. It just felt right.

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