00:00 COMM: This is Nanette.
00:01 NANETTE KURIANI: I guess I'm attracted to tall guys.
00:04 COMM: She fell in love with Rich.
00:07 RICH KURIANI: I've dated tall women, I've dated short women, no one as short as Nanette.
00:12 COMM: With nearly a two-foot difference in height, they have gotten used to the stairs.
00:16 RICH KURIANI: We've had people take pictures, yell across the street. We've had people
00:21 think that our daughter and my wife were sisters.
00:29 NANETTE KURIANI: You're stuck.
00:30 RICH KURIANI: Well, we complement each other in many different ways and it's way beyond
00:35 our height difference.
00:36 NANETTE KURIANI: It is.
00:37 RICH KURIANI: I'm more hands-on and mechanical and...
00:40 NANETTE KURIANI: I'm more anal.
00:41 RICH KURIANI: Dimensional. No, don't say that.
00:43 NANETTE KURIANI: What?
00:44 RICH KURIANI: It just doesn't sound good.
00:46 RICH KURIANI: Nanette's originally from the Philippines but we live here in New York.
00:50 I am six-foot-two and a quarter.
00:54 NANETTE KURIANI: And I am what?
00:56 RICH KURIANI: Four-foot-three and three-quarters.
00:59 NANETTE KURIANI: Yes. The thing that's most challenging is just reaching the cupboard.
01:04 The stove is kind of like face level.
01:07 RICH KURIANI: Yeah, imagine trying to cook when the stove is this high.
01:10 NANETTE KURIANI: I have to have everything down in the low cupboard or mama's not cooking.
01:15 RICH KURIANI: Coffee in the morning, I'm the one who does that. You know, coffee pot sits
01:20 on a high counter and then you got to pour everything in there. For her, it's like that.
01:25 That's our thing is I'll take care of the high stuff and she takes care of the low stuff.
01:31 The couple first met online when they were living almost 6,000 miles apart.
01:36 RICH KURIANI: I was born in upstate New York and was born and raised here until I left
01:41 for the military, did a stint in the Air Force and then I ended up going working as a military
01:46 contractor in Afghanistan.
01:48 NANETTE KURIANI: I am born in the Philippines in the swamp, in the biggest swamp in Asia.
01:52 When I was a young adult, I would be confident in some things. I had my degree and I, you
02:00 know, I had a job but there was a segment in my life that I had no confidence in like
02:06 dating.
02:07 RICH KURIANI: Nanette and I met on a dating website.
02:10 NANETTE KURIANI: Few days later, he asked if he could come and visit me and I said,
02:14 "Okay." We met each other for the very first time at the airport in the Philippines.
02:19 Before ever meeting in person, Rich and Nanette had both confessed that they are in love with
02:24 each other. But Nanette hadn't shared her exact height.
02:28 RICH KURIANI: I knew that she was shorter but I didn't realise how petite she was. When
02:37 I got off the plane, I was looking through the middle of the crowd and then when I saw
02:41 her, I looked down and then I realised, "Oh wow, she is a lot smaller than I realised."
02:48 But that didn't matter, you know.
02:50 NANETTE KURIANI: Right from the get go, I could tell that this is what I wanted in a
02:54 relationship and I am like, this is the guy that I have been wanting to like just accepting
02:59 of who I am, of you know, where I was in my life at the time.
03:03 The negative reactions the couple have received have varied depending on whether they are
03:08 in the Philippines or the US.
03:10 NANETTE KURIANI: In the US, I get offended when people think that I am a male order bride
03:16 because I am not and it's outlawed in the Philippines. In the Philippines, it was quite
03:21 normal to be dating with a foreign guy but the shock factor was like, "Whoa, you are
03:29 too short and he is too big." In the US, it was like at a bar, you know, they would
03:36 be like, "Why are you bringing a young kid in a bar?"
03:40 The irony is, she has never been ID'd in a bar.
03:43 NANETTE KURIANI: Yes!
03:46 RICHARD KURIANI: We have had people take pictures, we have had people yell across the street,
03:50 we have had people actually approach us. At the end of the day, we are who we are and
03:56 anybody who ever meets Nanette instantly forgets that she is as small as she is because she
04:01 is so much larger in life.
04:03 In spite of the judgement they face, Rich and Nanette knew that they were ready to take
04:07 the next step in their relationship.
04:09 We had a beautiful outdoor wedding and we were right on a cliff overlooking Lake Erie
04:13 with the sunset setting behind us. I had my best friend build us a set of stairs for Nanette.
04:19 It kind of like...
04:21 It leveled us out.
04:22 Yeah.
04:23 So a lot of our wedding photos are a little deceptive. They look like we are closer to
04:27 the same size.
04:28 Well...
04:29 Except for the dancing ones.
04:31 Now we tease my daughter that at the wedding I was really tall.
04:35 I got pregnant when I was thirty... boy, thirty-two?
04:40 Mm-hmm.
04:41 Thirty-two?
04:42 Yeah.
04:43 Our daughter knows that Mama is tiny and Daddy is big. Daddy is big. She wants to be big
04:50 like Daddy and she doesn't want to be short like Mama.
04:53 We've had one time where a gentleman thought that our daughter and my wife were sisters.
05:00 It's my turn to stay in Daddy's lap.
05:03 For Nanette and Rich, their striking height difference has never been an obstacle for
05:08 their love.
05:09 It's such a... I wouldn't say perfect, but it just works so well. It's differences, but
05:16 at the same time core values and where our goals are heading towards the same direction.
05:20 She keeps me grounded. I'd probably be a lot crazier if I didn't have her. At the same
05:25 time, I let her kind of take more chances. I think it kind of goes both ways. That's
05:31 our dynamic. See you when we sit down on the same side.
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