While Married at First Sight expert Mel Schilling is known for being open and honest with couples, she is also incredibly candid when it comes to her family.
Whether it is to offer updates on her daughter or videos and loved-up snaps with her husband on social media, Mel likes to share her experiences.
Read more about her family life below.
Is Mel Schilling married?
Mel married her husband Gareth Brisbane in 2018, however, the two have been together far longer than that.
The two met on a dating website in 2010 but waited eight years before they tied the knot in Bali.
Speaking to our sister publication WHO Magazine about her wedding day, Mel said: “I had a bit of a cry on the day. It’s just the meaning of it all. I was a late bloomer in life, like, I didn’t meet my husband until I was nearly 40 and then we had our daughter when I was nearly 42, so to be finally saying our ‘I dos’ was an emotional time. It was very special.”
What has Mel Schilling said about IVF?
Mel’s daughter Maddie was born on November 3, 2015. Now nine years old, Mel often posts about her daughter online.
The 53-year-old had her daughter relatively late in life. The relationship expert gave birth to her only child at the age of 42, however, this wasn’t the first time she had been pregnant.
“I got pregnant when I was 40 and had a miscarriage and that really changed things. That was a real eye-opener and just made me realise how much I wanted a child. Both of us did,” she revealed in an interview with OK!
Following her heartbreaking experience, she and her husband Gareth chose to go through the route of IVF and luckily, they were successful and suddenly had a new member of the family.
“I feel like I worked really hard to bring her into this world and now that we have her, and we’re only having one, she’s just so incredibly important to us,” Mel told our sister publication Woman’s Day in 2022.
Mel clearly adores her daughter, and as it turns out, the two are very similar in some ways.
“We’re both very much performers, and she’s a natural in front of the camera, but she’s started to become a bit of a director. There are a lot of imaginative plays,” Mel said.
How has Mel Schilling’s family helped her through cancer?
Though her career revolves around giving advice to others on their relationships, Mel is never short of words of advice for her daughter when it comes to dating or anything else she needs support with. However, her daughter is also there to help her in her time of need.
The dating coach was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2023 and has been very open with her followers throughout her journey, to raise awareness and remove the stigma.
Speaking to 9Entertainment, she said she spent the first six months of 2024 filming MAFS UK while she was undergoing chemotherapy and then returned to film the dating show in Australia.
She first announced that she was undergoing her final round of chemo in late July 2024 when she shared a photo of her with her husband with the caption: “Date lunch with the big guy to celebrate my impending FINAL round of chemo.”
“Lovely day on the river, beautiful food, a sip of wine & optimism all around,” continued in the caption.
At the time, she told OK! that her husband was her “rock” and her young daughter understood it and supported her “in her own way”.
“He’s gone through his own tough year as he’s had grief in his life, but has still been there for me,” she told the publication about Gareth at the time.
“We have a non-traditional relationship, I guess, as I’m the one who goes out to work and he does the majority of parenting at home. It works well for us.”
Thankfully, she told 9Entertainment in January 2025 that she was in remission.
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