Brad and Stacie fell in love on Farmer Wants A Wife. This is what their lives look like now.

Feature Image: Channel Nine and Townlife Magazine.

Ten years ago, Brad Crane and Stacie Marmion were the fairytale couple of Farmer Wants A Wife’s fourth season. The attraction between them was so immediate and so strong that they moved in together while their season was still being filmed.

“You know how we did the whole ‘come home and meet the parents’ thing? He stayed that night and never left,” Stacie tells Mamamia. “He moved in with my dad and me from that day.”

Brad had been living in Lithgow, NSW, while Stacie was from nearby Bathurst. After their wedding in 2010, they decided to start their married life in a new town.

“We went on the honeymoon, 17,000km around Australia. We camped for two or three months and we town-hunted as we went.”

They found a property they loved in Gunnedah, NSW, and bought it. Then came three gorgeous girls: Darcie, now six, Bobbie, now four, and Frankie, now two.

“I asked for one more the other day and Brad booked himself in for the snip!” Stacie laughs. “So that’s out of the question."

“Brad loves his little girls. But I think that’s us done.”

The Cranes have created a beautiful family. However, like so many farmers, they’ve been hard hit by the drought.

“The drought’s pretty much knocked us for six,” Stacie reveals. “We’ve had a good two to three years of it now. The start of this year we had to sell all our cattle.

“We’ve even lost dirt. Once all the ground cover went, we had these horrific winds and dust storms. They’ve taken away topsoil. It’s going to take years and years and years to recover. There’s certain patches I can’t even see coming back.”

Still, Stacie says they’re lucky, compared to some farmers. Brad is an electrician by trade, and they’ve been running a contracting business.

“We’ve had that as a side income, so that puts us in a better position. These old blokes that have had farms for generations and generations, they’ve got nothing.”

She says their three daughters “keep us going”.

“People are getting down in the dumps and depressed with it all – and trust me, it is bloody depressing out here at the moment – but you can’t do that when you’ve got three little kids. You soldier on.”

Listen: What two girls from farming families want you to know about the drought. Post continues after podcast. 

As Stacie points out, the girls don’t really know what it’s like to not be in drought. The Cranes have been buying water for the house for more than two years. Before they sold their cattle, they were feeding them twice a day, and the girls would help out.

“They’d come home from school, we’d throw them in the ute, and they’d shovel off cottonseed and throw hay with us. They don’t know any different, really.”

Stacie is still a big fan of reality TV, as is her oldest daughter Darcie. So it was a huge moment for Darcie when she discovered how her parents got together.

“Darcie absolutely loves The Bachelor, and randomly, the other day, she said, ‘Mummy, where did you and Daddy meet?’ I said, ‘Well, do I have a story for you!’ I told her but she didn’t believe me.”

So Stacie brought out all the Farmer Wants A Wife DVDs for her daughter.

“She sat there glued to the television for about 10 hours, every single episode from start to finish. She loved it. I’ve never seen her sit so still. So that was nice.”

Earlier this month, it was announced that Farmer Wants A Wife would return for another season. Stacie thinks there’s still a place for it – as long as it sticks to the original format.

“I just think it got so many fans by being genuine. It was all very natural.”

Stacie didn’t go on Farmer Wants A Wife because she wanted fame. In fact, she struggled with being in front of the cameras.

“I just didn’t love the whole filming thing,” she admits.

However, the chemistry was very much real.

“If Brad and I had met at the pub, we would have hooked up.”

As for the future, the Cranes are planning to stay in Gunnedah.

“Darcie’s just started at a beautiful little school in town and made some nice friends here, so this is home for us. The place is absolutely beautiful, if it ever does rain again.

“The way I see it, if we can survive right now, we can survive forever.”