McLaughlin met Westwood in late 2015 while she was in India working for Star TV while still on contract to Network 10.
Westwood, then coaching a Malaysian soccer team, and his pregnant wife Huma were staying at the same Mumbai hotel as McLaughlin.
At this writer’s request, Westwood last year provided a statement to McLaughlin’s Seven News boss stating he and McLaughlin began their relationship in 2016 “after the breakdown of my marriage”.
It seems the requirements of being father to five children aged 20, 15, 11, six and two — and living half a world away from them — hasn’t dampened Westwood’s enthusiasm for being a protective minder to McLaughlin.
He also joined her at the Australian Open Tennis in Melbourne in January and at the Victorian Spring Racing Carnival in November.