Johnny and Kerry Balbuziente found love on Married At First Sight, and now, they’re embarking on a brand new chapter.
The couple welcomed their daughter Chloe, two, in June 2024, and needless to say, parenthood has completely changed their lives.
Familiar with the challenges of parenthood, they have now become ambassadors for the Children’s Hospital Foundation in Queensland to support families navigating their toughest and most unimaginable moments.
Speaking exclusively to New Idea about their new roles, Kerry and Johnny said becoming parents has completely changed their perspective and taught them what is important in life.
“I was really excited to become a dad,” Johnny admits. “But, I think every parent can relate, you don’t realise the level of love you have for your child.”
“I had so much anxiety when Chloe first came out, and I actually felt like I had postnatal depression, because I was so anxious all the time, and it was just a level of care and love for my daughter.”
“It totally changed the way I see [things].”
“It’s taught us both not to sweat the small stuff,” Kerry adds. “When you’ve got something that’s so important to you, suddenly other things sort of fade into the background.”
This change in perspective inspired them to work with the Children’s Hospital Foundation. Kerry admits it “broke her heart” to imagine Chloe being in the hospital, with other families’ experiences hitting close to home.
“When we [toured] the [Queensland Children’s Hospital], there was a moment where we spoke about parents who don’t get to leave the hospital with their child, and just bringing myself back into the hospital with Chloe when she was born, and the thought of leaving there without her, it just broke my heart,” she says.
“You can’t help but put yourself in those parents’ shoes. No one imagines themselves having to be there. We would never picture having to be there with Chloe.”
“I think everyone feels empathy when they go through there, but as a parent, you can’t help but put yourself in a position like that, and we both just bawled our eyes out,” Johnny adds.
Johnny says working with charities has been important to him ever since leaving MAFS because of his own family’s experience with cancer, after losing his aunt to breast cancer, while his mother has battled ovarian cancer.
“It became clear to us quickly that when we had our following [after MAFS] and actually had a voice and people actually listened to what we say, we knew immediately that we had to align ourselves with a charity that aligned with us,” Johnny says.
“A lot of women in my family have all, pretty much, experienced some form of breast cancer, and my mum had ovarian cancer.”
Though they use their platform to promote important causes, Johnny and Kerry never planned to be full-time influencers after MAFS, joking that contributed to their portrayal as the “boring couple” on the Channel Nine show.
In fact, they even went as far as making a vow to each other on the night of their MAFS wedding that they would “always consider each other’s careers”, whether they left the show as partners or friends.
“We were quite happy to be the boring, normal couple who returned to our very happy lives,” Kerry admits, saying they never intended to be “shock jocks”. “It kept us grounded to not feel that we had to be involved in the drama.”
“It was never a negotiation to think about being influencers,” Johnny insists, warning that anyone who leaves MAFS as a full-time influencer will have to battle the “stress” of not knowing when the next pay cheque will drop.
“If I have any advice to any contestant that’s going on MAFS and the intention is to get a following and just be an influencer full-time: I promise you, be very, very careful,” he warned.
Since finding fame on MAFS, Kerry instead returned to her day job as an occupational therapist and now works with BHP, leading projects to prevent workplace injuries, a role which has informed her new ambassador role.
In fact, Kerry’s project earned her prize money at the 2025 BHP HSEC Awards, and she is working to donate it to the Children’s Hospital Foundation to help them support sick children and their families.
“We did a hospital tour and walked through the rehabilitation ward, honestly, it made me want to quit my job on the spot,” she admits.
“It combines everything that’s at the core of occupational therapy, which is patient and person-focused therapy, and what’s best for them and their outcomes.”
Meanwhile, Johnny has brought his theatre background to the ambassador role and has connected Queensland Fringe with the Children’s Hospital Foundation in the hope that they will become charity partners.
As well as opening up a new fundraising opportunity, entertainers from the Fringe will also visit the hospital to provide “some joy, laughter and fun” for the unwell children staying there.
The couple admitted they had no idea about the levels of support the Children’s Hospital Foundation provided before becoming parents themselves, and they hope to use their platform to spread more awareness.
The Children’s Hospital Foundation raises funds to support sick and injured children by funding vital research, purchasing medical equipment and providing on-the-ground support to rural communities.
It works closely with the Queensland Children’s Hospital to support both unwell children and their affected families, including bereaved parents.
Kerry admits she was most surprised about how little the Queensland Children’s Hospital felt like a medical facility, praising them for providing comfort and normality for families at the “worst moment” of their lives.
For more information about the Children’s Hospital Foundation and its programs or to donate, visit childrens.org.au.
