From a Bali bar to sellout shows: How love paved the way for Chloe and Paul Fisher

Depending who you ask, Chloe and Paul Fisher are a lot of things. To some, Paul is best known as Fisher, a Grammy-nominated artist who tours the world with his influencer wife. To others, Chloe is the co-host of a much-loved podcast, Darling, Shine!, who occasionally convinces her DJ husband to come on and discuss everything from their fertility journey to life on the road. To friends, Paul and Chloe are Gold Coast locals who throw a good party. But no matter who you ask, it’s always agreed that the two are a package deal ­– they’re the Fishers.

When Chloe met Paul in 2012 he was 27 and, in his own words, a “broke-ass surfer” living in the US. Paul was visiting Bali and, after a couple of big nights, wasn’t keen on going out again until his mates tempted him with the promise of his favourite meatballs, served at the bar they were all heading to.

Chloe, then 20, was visiting Bali from Sydney and found herself sitting a few seats down from her future husband. They locked eyes; she winked.

“I’d never done anything like that before,” she tells me, shaking her head. Within 10 minutes Chloe had convinced Paul to have a drink with her, and his decision to have a quiet night was officially out the window.

“I fell in love with her from that moment,” he says. “I stayed in Bali for the rest of her holiday. She was meant to be on a girls’ trip, but I kind of ruined that.”

After three weeks of surfing, dancing and getting to know each other, Paul needed to go back to Hawaii. On the plane home, he texted one of Chloe’s friends: “Tell that chick I’m in love with her.” Looking back on their chance meeting, Chloe agrees it was love at first sight.

“I stayed in Bali for the rest of her holiday. She was meant to be on a girls’ trip, but I kind of ruined that.”

Though they had no idea when they were going to see each other again, they were in touch constantly, until Paul told Chloe he was going on a hunting trip and wouldn’t have reception for a few days. Chloe, with no reason not to believe him, said she’d talk to him as soon as he was back. Little did she know that there was no hunting trip – Paul had booked a flight to Sydney.

Paul went straight from the airport to Chloe’s parents’ place, where he introduced himself, then spent an awkward afternoon waiting for her to get home from work. From that moment on they were official and spent the following months living in a tiny room in Chloe’s family home, before she decided to quit her job and join him on the pro-surfing circuit.

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When Paul was told his surfing contract was ending, he took a chance and focused on something he’d wanted to do since he was a teenager: make music. The risk paid off. In 2017, Fisher was born. A year later, he released Losing It, which was nominated for Best Dance Recording at the Grammys and placed second in the Triple J Hottest 100.

Meanwhile, Chloe was working on her own business – a swimwear label, Aloé Swimwear, which she sold seven years later. The couple had gone from living on next to nothing to each having thousands of followers all around the world.

In early 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, the couple were back in Bali, this time for their wedding, at The Lawn in Canggu.

As Chloe and Paul entered the reception, to be introduced as the Fishers for the very first time, Paul went to spin Chloe around, but she slipped on the edge of her wedding dress and, as she puts it, hit the deck. The moment was captured perfectly by their photographer and witnessed by 150 of their closest friends and family.

From that moment on, for every fall there have been countless moments of joy. Every setback has ended with them in each other’s arms, holding on tight.

In April 2022, Paul shared an Instagram story with his 1.5 million followers, letting them know he was cancelling his coming Fisher shows. After two years of fertility struggles, Chloe had had her third miscarriage, with the couple later finding out they had lost twins. At the end of last year, Chloe completed her seventh round of IVF. On Christmas Day, of all days, she took a pregnancy test, hoping for the best. It was negative.

“I was playing to 30,000 people and I’d look to the side of the stage and think, ‘Where’s my best mate?’ ”

When the couple started their IVF journey, Chloe stayed home, keeping her distance from the rising buzz of her husband’s on-stage life. But the distance proved to be too great a sacrifice.

“I was playing to 30,000 people and I’d look to the side of the stage and think, ‘Where’s my best mate?’ ” Paul tells me. “I called her one day and said, ‘You need to come and live in this moment because it won’t happen again.’ It’s been tough, but at the same time, I’m just glad that we’ve got each other.”

Since launching in 2021, Darling, Shine!, which Chloe co-hosts with best friend Ellidy Pullin, has gained a global cult following. Ellidy talks about life after losing her partner Alex “Chumpy” Pullin in a spearfishing accident before giving birth to their daughter Minnie.

Chloe opens up about the difficulties of infertility and the impact it’s had on her mental health and the couple’s relationship. Chloe and Paul agree that everything they’ve been through has made them closer, stronger and more resilient. They know what they want, and they’re determined to make it happen. “It’s bittersweet because I’m so grateful for our life,” she says.

“I try so hard to be in the moment, but it’s the one missing piece for me.”

If you listen to the podcast, or follow either Fisher on Instagram, it’s easy to feel as though you know them, as if you’re another close friend following along as they go to the dance music festival Tomorrowland in Belgium, party through Fisher’s Ibiza residency, or unwind back on the Gold Coast.

At Fisher shows, fans wear Darling, Shine! merch and carry DIY signs that say they’re just there to see Chloe, Ellidy or baby Minnie, who went viral on Instagram after Paul shared a video of her smiling and dancing along in a pair of pink headphones backstage at a music festival in Europe last year.

Paul was once nervous about the impact of a baby on touring and travelling. When fans embraced his god-daughter Minnie, he saw how his life as an international DJ could intersect with his life as a dad.

“Having Ellidy and Minnie there changed my whole summer. I’d finish at 7am, come home, walk through the front door, and just see this little monkey,” says Paul. “She just brightens up your day.”

Despite everything that Chloe, now 31, and Paul, 37, have achieved so far, there are no signs of things slowing down for either of them. It feels quite the opposite.

The most recent Fisher tour had 29,000 Sydney fans partying in The Domain and ticket sales for his four Australian shows totalled 72,000. Hard Fizz, the alcoholic seltzer brand Chloe and Paul co-founded, has raised $4 million from early investors.

Still, the couple insist they haven’t changed at all since they met. “Chloe was there when I was playing for three people in a random bedroom in Hawaii for free beers,” says Paul.

“Yeah, we’ve been through the whole thing together,” Chloe agrees. “Because we’ve been together for so long, it’s just second nature. We’re just going along for the ride.”

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There’s a lightness between Paul and Chloe, a comfort that only comes from sharing every part of life together, from international tours, to infertility, to putting the bins out (which they tell me they happily do together, so they don’t have to be apart). Throughout their relationship, the longest they’ve ever been away from one another is three months. They agree it was hell.

What does the coming year look like for the Fishers? “More of the same,” is the answer. This means more time in Bali, many hours in a podcast studio, Paul’s second Coachella performance and another European summer based in Ibiza. The only difference they’re hoping for is that 2023 finally brings them their long-awaited baby.

“I won’t stop until I’m a mum,” Chloe says. “I don’t care if it means more IVF, surrogacy, or adoption. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Stylist, Nadene Duncan; Hair and make-up, Satya Schmitz.

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