She is the whip-smart investigative journalist. He is the jokester from MAFS. Now Stan Grant’s ex-wife Karla reveals the reason she fell in love with Nasser Sultan in Australia’s oddest celebrity couple
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They have been coined Australia’s oddest celebrity couple.
Nasser Sultan and Karla Grant freely admit that they couldn’t be more different people.
From the outside, the Walkley Award-winning SBS journalist, 59, and controversial Married at First Sight star, 56, don’t appear to have an awful lot in common.
But when ‘house husband’ Nasser stands up during a Zoom call with Daily Mail Australia to make a cup of tea and flashes the bottom half of his business shirt and boxers combo, Karla bursts into laughter.
A good laugh is just what the esteemed SBS presenter needed after an intense interview with a Harvard University professor.
‘She’s a much smarter person than me,’ Nasser says.
‘I’m always thinking, “How did this happen?”’
‘The secret is I make her laugh a lot,’ he adds, confessing he still can’t pronounce ‘Walkley’.
Nasser Sultan and Karla Grant have revealed the truth about their relationship in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Australia
The couple, who celebrated their six month anniversary this week, first met at a film screening for the Matrix four years ago.
‘Nasser came up to me and introduced himself,’ Karla explains.
‘Of course I knew who he was because I’d seen him on MAFS.’
The former music-manager-turned-over-50s-personal trainer rose to fame on the reality TV experiment in 2018, where he failed to find love with TV match Gabrielle Bartlett.
‘He said how much he liked my work on SBS and I thought he was really nice,’ Karla recalls of her first impressions.
She was watching the movie with her son John, who is an aspiring musician, and one of three children Karla shares with her ex-husband of 16 years, Stan Grant.
‘I thought he was really nice in how he gave John some advice (about the music industry),’ she says.
Meanwhile, Nasser was immediately struck by Karla.
The couple, who celebrated their six month anniversary this week, first met at a film screening for the Matrix four years ago
Over the next three years, the couple continued to get to know each other in small interactions at media industry events, and Nasser continuously sent Karla dinner and coffee invitations.
‘I was always really busy with work. I’m kind of married to my job,’ Karla says.
‘I travel a lot for shoots. Nass would message me and I’d say, “Sorry, I’m overseas next week.”
‘We were both seeing other people during that time as well.’
Last October, Nasser invited Karla to one of the infamous X-rated Maxim magazine Halloween parties.
When the esteemed journalist said she wasn’t ‘really the demographic’ for a room full of ‘half naked’ models, Nasser said ‘don’t be silly’.
‘I thought “Well, why not?”‘ she says.
‘At the end of that party, he asked me out again.’
Karla turned down Nasser’s next two invitations – once because she caring for her elderly mother and the other time because she was on a trip with her daughter over New Year’s Eve.
‘Another guy would’ve said “Stuff it!”‘ Nasser exclaims.
‘The thing is, I’m not young. We’re both not young. To find someone in this age group who’s got a real job and drives a manual car is rare! So I kept at it for three years. I played the long game.’
From the outside the Walkley Award-winning SBS journalist, 59, and controversial Married at First Sight star, 56, don’t appear to have an awful lot in common
Daily Mail Australia first caught wind of the blossoming romance in February, as did Karla’s SBS colleagues. The news travelled fast, with whispers of “Have you seen who Karla’s dating now?’ filling the Herbert Street Sydney office
When they met for that dinner with friends, Nasser says ‘it was love at first sight’.
‘I remember putting my hand between her legs, I mean on her lap,’ he jokes.
‘We hit it off from there.’
Several months into the relationship, the only arguments the ‘foodie’ duo have is over what to eat.
‘We are very different,’ Karla explains.
‘Everyone knows me for being a serious journo, but I do have a funny side as well and I think Nasser has brought that out in me a lot more. We had good banter.
‘What I love about Nass is we’re very playful together and have a lot of fun and giggle and laugh. I think we complement each other.’
Karla’s split from her ex-husband Stan Grant became front page news in 2000 when the broadcaster left her for his Seven colleague Tracey Holmes, who was dubbed by the tabloids a ‘Holmes Wrecker’.
The publicity was so intense that the scandal-plagued couple both resigned on the same day because Seven management didn’t want them to live together.
Karla’s split from her ex-husband Stan Grant became front page news in 2000 when the broadcaster left her for his Seven colleague Tracey Holmes, who was dubbed a ‘Holmes wrecker’ by the tabloids
With Nasser, Karla feels safe and happy, and the headline-grabbing reality TV alum is quite happy to hitch his wagon to her ‘star power’.
‘There is never a dull moment with Nass. I’ve never dated anyone like him,’ she says.
‘It has been so difficult to find a person who understands what I do, and that I’m away a lot and always busy, and supports me as well in what I do.’
Karla joined SBS in 1995, and in 2002, became executive producer of the network’s Indigenous Media Unit. She pitched the show Living Black to the national broadcaster’s executives.
Now, after 22 years at the helm of the Indigenous current affairs program, Karla has interviewed everyone from former Prime Ministers, senior politicians and advisors and the Dalai Lama, as well rock stars, Hollywood actors, artists and historians.
But in her dating life, Karla says many men don’t particularly enjoy the attention that comes with her profile.
‘That’s what I’ve found in the past, that people don’t like all the publicity that goes along with dating me. It can be intimidating for some people and that can put tension on the relationship,’ she explains.
‘With us, it’s not like that.’ She adds with a laugh: ‘Nasser has no such qualms about being the centre of attention.’
With Nasser, Karla feels safe and happy, and the headline-grabbing reality TV alum is quite happy to hitch his wagon to her ‘star power’ and to stand back and watch her shine
Karla says they have a ‘mutual understanding’ that each other will frequently be approached by members of the public.
In recent weeks, the couple have made red carpet appearances together for Australian Fashion Week, Sydney Film Festival, MJ The Musical, and received VIP tickets to Andrea Bocelli at the Sydney Opera House.
Both are fans of public displays of affection.
‘We could be at an event and we hold hands and I still play with her a**,’ Nasser jokes.
‘PDA is to show that other person “Hey I’m still here, I’m with you.”
Karla adds: ‘I love that he’s very affectionate towards me and very attentive. We even hold hands at home!’
She spends three to four nights per week at Nasser’s home in Sydney and also moonlights as his social media manager when his drafted posts ‘are a bit too outrageous.’
‘She tells me when my spelling is wrong,’ he says.
In recent weeks, the couple have made red carpet appearances together for Australian Fashion Week, the launch of Sydney Film Festival, the MJ The Musical premiere, and received VIP tickets to Andrea Bocelli at the Sydney Opera House
The couple also share a love of dressing up, makeup and shopping, with Karla describing Nasser as ‘flamboyant’.
‘He goes to op shops all the time and he’ll be looking for stuff for me. He’ll send me a photo and ask what I think. It’s so nice to have these little moments in the day when I know he is thinking of me,’ she explains.
‘It’s those little things that mean a lot. It might be him making me a cup of tea in the morning.’
Like teenagers with a mutual crush, the pair text each other all day long.
‘Sometimes I do have a lot on my plate,’ Karla says.
‘There might be something happening with my family or work. But as tired as I might be, I always make time to send little messages.
‘We message each other all day long. Then if we’re not seeing each other that night, we talk on the phone. It’s about making an effort.’
Daily Mail Australia first caught wind of the blossoming romance in February, as did Karla’s SBS colleagues.
The news travelled fast, with whispers of “Have you seen who Karla’s dating now?’ filling the Herbert Street Sydney office.
‘Um…They were… surprised, I’ll say that much. They were very surprised,’ she says.
‘But they can see that I’m happy and said to me as long, “as you’re happy, that’s the main thing. We just want to see you happy”.’
The one thing she would like to state for the record is that despite her boyfriend’s ‘well documented’ history of making publicity stunts – this love is the real deal.
