Yes 933 radio DJ Hazelle Teo has started a podcast with her pianist fiance James Wong, and they talked about their first “misunderstanding” on the first episode of The Couple’s Classroom uploaded on Feb 7.
Hazelle, who turns 32 in April, said she reached out to James, 26, on Instagram after seeing him on her Explore page.
“I was like, ‘Hey this boy is cute’… I decided to follow him first because who knows, we might be able to collab,” she said, adding that she thought he was a Malaysian citizen.
In a previous interview, she said that was in 2024.
When she found out he’s Singaporean, she reached out asking to make content together.
He replied to her within half a day, but once they moved to Telegram, Hazelle said he took a long time to reply to her and would sometimes leave her on seen.
James explained in the podcast he was trying to treat their relationship “professionally” like others who messaged him online for work: “I wanted to keep it as professional as possible and then see how it goes along the way.”
But Hazelle thought he wasn’t interested in her as she would try to start conversations but was met with responses she “couldn’t reply back to”.
“That was when my first misunderstanding with James occurred in my mind. ‘Is this person gay? He seems so uninterested’,” she said.
Their first meeting
The couple had their first meeting at a cafe to discuss the collaboration and after dinner, James said they walked around and talked for three hours.
“Deep down in my heart, I didn’t want the conversation to end,” he said.
“I felt like there was something special about her. She is very mature, she knows what she wants. She is very well-spoken and I felt very comfortable speaking to her.”
Hazelle, however, had a different impression after that night: “I felt like, ‘Wow he really takes me as a good friend.'”
Because they could communicate well, Hazelle thought they could just be “good friends”, which was fine with her.
“I really left the meeting feeling like we were going to be bros from then,” she said.
But after the meeting, their text messages became more frequent and “intense”, and they eventually started dating.
“I think at some point we were meeting five times a week, which some of you guys would think is a bit gross… I think one of the most important values and lessons I’ve learned is that she brings out the best in me,” said James.
‘He ironed out difficult topics from day one’
Hazelle also shared that James had prepared paragraphs of text with pointers from a podcast about relationships.
“He wanted to discuss with me before we officially got together to see whether we’d be a good fit for each other,” she explained.
“At that point he was 24. I was like, ‘How is this 24-year-old guy so mature?'”
They talked about their timeline to have kids, religion and “many different things”.
Hazelle told James: “That was one thing that changed my opinion about you entirely,” to which he replied: “I date to marry. I don’t want to waste my time and knowing your age, you were 30 at the time. I knew that timeline was going to be an issue.”
It was very important that they laid everything out on the table from the get-go and decided whether they were suitable for each other, he added.
“If we are not, then it’s okay. We’ll be friends. But if we are, then we jolly well buckle up and fix all the differences that we have,” said James.
Hazelle nodded and pointed at him: “That’s James for you. Thankfully he wants kids because if he doesn’t, then there’s no way I would be stepping into this relationship in the first place. I’m glad that he ironed out all these very difficult topics from day one before we even officially got together.”
The couple announced their engagement in June 2025 and took their pre-wedding photos in Switzerland last September.
[[nid:729600]]
syarifahsn@asiaone.com
Read the full article here
