After finding love on MasterChef Australia, Sarah Todd and Declan Cleary welcomed their twin daughters into the world.
Their two baby girls were born healthy on Christmas Eve; however, they have now revealed that the journey was not easy.
The couple, who found love on the Back to Win season, told our sister publication, The Australian Woman’s Weekly, that there were some terrifying complications.
From the start, Sarah’s pregnancy was challenging, and after her 34-week scan, she was diagnosed with preeclampsia — a pregnancy complication involving high blood pressure and a shortage of platelets.
When things did not improve, they decided to do an emergency C-section.
“Sarah goes under, and they’re cutting her open and both girls come out – and the girls were still,” Declan said on the publication’s podcast, Love Stories.
“And it was like, God, I’ve got like two dead babies here and mum’s knocked unconscious. And I can’t say anything. I can’t ask any questions because there’s 18 people there. They’re going crazy – chucking plastic bags on the girls and shaking the s**t out of them.”
They explained that the twins were eventually in the clear, but Sarah’s health took a turn for the worse.
She said she began to have seizures, which is a rare complication of preeclampsia.
“It was just so scary, not feeling stable or in control,” she recalled. “I can handle pain, but I couldn’t handle this. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”
Months later, Sarah said she’s still recovering from the ordeal.
The couple initially shared the news about the birth of their daughters on Instagram on Christmas Eve.
“💕🤍Claudia and Charlotte🤍💕Merry Christmas from our family to yours.🐣🐣,” Declan wrote in a joint post.
The post was accompanied by a photo of the couple with their daughters, as well as photos of them, Sarah’s son Phoenix, and Declan’s dog Sol, taken before the babies arrived.
In the final photo, all of them, including Sol, have their hands and paws on Sarah’s bump.
Before that, they announced the exciting news about growing their family on October 9.
One day before this, the now-parents exclusively told New Idea that they were looking forward to their first Christmas together as a family.
“We’re excited, we’ve been on the road for the best part of this year, and we’re excited to just have it at home,” Sarah said at the time.
“We’ve got a beautiful garden and charcoal barbecue, and we’re just excited to just bunker down.”
Previously, the couple had shared their due date with Mamamia’s No Filter podcast.
At the time, they didn’t reveal that they were having twins, and said they would have a “summer” baby.
Sarah also opened up on the moment she found out she was pregnant, revealing she first noticed when she fell sick at the end of a work trip to India.
“I’m going through customs in the airport, and out of nowhere, I just vomit in a bin,” she explained.
Once she arrived in Cairns, where she was meeting Declan and some of her co-stars, she got the confirmation.
The couple initially kept the news to themselves before sharing it with their family and loved ones.
While their romance might seem like a whirlwind to onlookers, having only met on the 2025 season of MasterChef, the pair were very confident in their relationship.
They said they were both on the same page when it came to wanting children, and even spoke about other options if Sarah struggled to fall pregnant.
Declan said it’s all he’s ever wanted and cannot wait to be by his partner’s side. Sarah already had Phoenix from a previous relationship.
“I’m so excited for all the little moments, the late-night feeds,” he said.
“I really want to support Sarah in every way I can professionally, so she can continue this career and all this work that she does and enjoy this experience.”
Both are also determined to work through the “hard times”, and support each other’s careers.
The couple have also purchased a bigger house in Bayside, to accommodate their growing family.
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