Mona and Des Manahan have been married for 56 years, but their love and romance is still very much alive. In fact, the senior couple recently made international headlines because of the devotion that Des shows to his wife.
As Mona’s eyesight started to deteriorate in her old age, she went to see makeup artist Rosie O’Driscoll at a department store so the young lady could do her makeup for a party. Though O’Driscoll is an accomplished beauty expert, Des couldn’t help but tease her about her job.
“I started messing with her and I said, ‘Look, you’ve got it crooked there, you did this wrong,’ joking her,” Des told TODAY Style. “And then she just handed me the brushes and said, ‘Well, you do it.’ So I started to do a little bit with it.”
To O’Driscoll’s surprise, the 83-year-old Irishman was a “natural.”
In fact, Des enjoyed doing his wife’s makeup so much, he started to take makeup lessons from O’Driscoll at the department store.
“He got lesson after lesson after lesson, and loved every minute of it,” O’Driscoll told TODAY. “I think he prefers me to take a step back now and let him off, let him do whatever he wants to do.”
As news of the Manahan’s love story got picked up by international news outlets, they eventually got the attention of Mario Dedivanovic, the celebrity makeup artist whose clients include Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, and Kim Kardashian.
The fashion mogul was so touched by the senior couple’s story, he invited them to one of his master classes in London back in April.
“I called my manager and told her i wanted to invite Des, Mona and Rosie to The Master Class and we had to make it happen,” writes Dedivanovic. “My heart felt so full seeing them there in front of me. My highlight of The Master Class London and of the year.”
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Mona and Des have been touched by the amount of attention that their marriage has received, but they say that they’re mostly just happy to take care of each other in their golden years.
“We’re not trying to look like 30-year-olds or 40-year-olds or 50-year-olds,” said Des. “We both love each other as we are at 83 and 82, which I think is enough.”
(WATCH the heart-melting video below)
Losing your eyesight brings with it a range of challenges. For Mona Manahan it meant the simple pleasure of putting on her makeup became near impossible - so her lovely husband Des stepped in to help. And ladies... a pearl of wisdom from Des... "Less is more" pic.twitter.com/c526vrrQCK
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) June 2, 2018
Be Sure And Share This Beautiful Love Story With Your Friends – Photo by BBC