Island Wedding | Reneé finds her perfect match in Malik Clarke

Before Reneé Hamilton and Malik Clarke ever considered a relationship, they simply enjoyed talking to each other. The conversations came easily, a sweet friendship took shape, and somewhere between all the talking and time spent together, feelings found their way in. The two first met in July 2018 after Reneé, overseas at the time, posted a photo of her academic schedule on Snapchat and Malik asked which university she was enrolled in.

“I told him I was going to UTech (University of Technology, Jamaica), and he told me that he attended UTech as well and offered to show me around when I started,” Reneé recounted to Island Wedding.

While Malik initiated the conversation, Reneé quickly gave him a reason to keep it going: “I realised Reneé was different because of how open and genuine she was with me. There were no games or pretences. She actually wanted to talk, get to know me, and build a friendship.”

For Reneé, Malik stood out for a different reason: “...he was very different from the other guys I had spoken to. He was extremely communicative and expressive.” She continued, “If I sent him a paragraph with five different points, he would respond to all five … I was not accustomed to that level of communication.”

Those conversations laid the foundation for a friendship that continued when Reneé returned to Jamaica. They studied together, encouraged each other through university, and spent more time getting to know each other in person. By December, however, the friendship was beginning to feel a little different.

“Somewhere around December, something shifted. The conversations became different, and our friendship started developing into something more,” Reneé said.

Though neither had said anything just yet, Reneé knew her feelings were changing.

“I started realising it when I noticed how much I craved his presence. I would look forward to seeing him at school, to our conversations and to his messages,” she added.

UNOFFICIAL FIRST DATE

An unofficial first date came soon after, with a few hours spent at Burger King on campus. Reneé also left with a keepsake from the day that she still has today.

“It was cold, and he had this red sweater that he used to take everywhere with him. I told him I was cold, so he gave it to me. I went home with it, and he never got it back. I still have that sweater,” she said with a smile.

It was only later that the two realised that there was another story behind their Burger King date. Some time before, Malik had promised to treat Reneé if she could stay awake talking to him until midnight.

“She won the bet, but we both completely forgot about it. Without even planning it, I had finally fulfilled my promise,” Malik shared.

FIRST ‘I LOVE YOU’

A week later, on January 31, 2019, they made their relationship official. Another milestone was not far behind.

“About one week after we officially started dating, Malik told me he loved me. I told him I loved him too because by then, I already knew that I did,” Reneé shared.

For Malik, there is plenty to love. Reneé’s optimism balances him and is among the qualities he admires, along with her intelligence, focus and work ethic. He adds, “She is passionate about what she wants in life, and we are very aligned when it comes to the future we want to build together.”

There were also several moments that made a future with Malik easy for Reneé to picture. “He would always make sure that I got safely onto the bus to go home. One day, I got home and forgot to message him to tell him that I had arrived safely. I ended up falling asleep, and he could not get in contact with me. He became so worried that he came all the way to my house just to make sure I was okay,” she recalled.

As her first official boyfriend, Malik continued to raise the bar. His attentiveness extended to her health, with Reneé, who experienced severe asthma attacks, recalling how he always made sure she had her inhalers and anything else she might need. His care also encouraged her to prioritise her own health.

That concern would take on even greater significance when the COVID-19 pandemic brought one of the more difficult periods of their relationship.

“I was balancing long work shifts with university courses while trying to pay my tuition and manage everything that was happening. Around the same time, Reneé went overseas and contracted COVID-19. Being so far away while she was sick was terrifying, especially because of her asthma. Thankfully, she recovered and returned home safely,” Malik shared.

Through life’s everyday moments, Malik became increasingly certain that his college sweetheart was the woman he wanted beside him for life.

“[It was] seeing Reneé’s qualities consistently over time and realising how much of a true partner she had become to me. Seeing the way she supported me, cared for me, and consistently showed up as my partner made me realise that she was the person I wanted to build my life with,” he said.

Malik soon began planning his proposal.

On December 20, 2025, he proposed to Reneé on a rooftop in New Kingston, surrounded by her closest friends and family. Pulling off the surprise, however, had required months of careful planning.

He arranged with her boss for her to have the day off and recruited her friends to help get her there without raising suspicion.

“I created a fake friendship anniversary dinner. Reneé believed she was getting dressed to go out with her friends when, in reality, everyone was helping me get her to the proposal without her suspecting anything,” Malik explained.

One of her friends then pretended to be running late and asked Reneé to collect the ‘friendship anniversary cake’ from an apartment complex on her way to dinner.

“When I arrived, I was told to go up to the rooftop. I remember thinking it was a little strange, but I just wanted to get the cake and hurry to dinner. When I reached the rooftop, everything suddenly made sense,” Reneé said.

There, instead of a cake, she found Malik waiting to ask her to marry him.

“I was genuinely taken aback. When he asked me to marry him, I was overwhelmed in the best way. I was happy, emotional, and crying, and it felt like I was experiencing so many emotions all at once,” Renee told Island Wedding.

And Malik had one more detail planned for the night. After the emotional ‘yes’, he whisked his new fiancée off to Saffron Indian Cuisine, one of her favourite cuisines, for dinner.

THE BIG DAY

Eight years after they first connected, the college sweethearts traded ‘I love yous’ for ‘I dos’ on Saturday, July 18, tying the knot at Craigbank Estate, St Andrew, where they also celebrated with family and friends at their reception.

Reneé walked down the aisle towards the man she had fallen in love with on campus and who she once described as a rarity: “You’re a rare breed. You’re like the 0.01 per cent of guys.”

Among the moments closest to the bride’s heart was the couple’s foot-washing ceremony, a meaningful expression of love and service in their marriage.

ruth-ann.briscoe@gleanerjm.com