The chair at Mat Johnson’s Adelaide hair salon must have some special powers.
Not only is it where the Blockhead met his teammate, Robby – but it’s where he first crossed paths with his good friend, Leah Cocks.
Now, the pair are expecting a baby together!
Choosing to announce the happy news exclusively with New Idea, Mat says their baby, a boy, is due at the end of the year.
He and Leah plan on co-parenting the little lad together.
“I have always wanted to be a dad, especially in this later part of my life,” Mat tells New Idea as he prepares for The Block’s upcoming Auction Day.
Mat, 41, admits that, for most of his adult life, his work was his “drive and heart” – but something was always missing.
“With hairdressing, you can form relationships with people and bonds, especially after years and lots of beautiful conversations,” he says.
But when Leah, who is in a same-sex relationship, first approached Mat with the idea to have a child together, he originally said no as he was scared his life would change.
“I didn’t know if I was ready at that stage of my life, and I think I was terrified because I have a very good life that I worked decades to be able to have,” he confesses.
About a year after turning Leah’s request down, Mat realised that he was, in fact, ready to take the leap, and it was what he wanted, so they started the process.
“I was ecstatic when it was a yes,” Leah tells us with a grin.
Mat adds: “I wouldn’t have done it with just anyone. It’s only because it’s her”.
Leah first sat down in Mat’s chair 20 years ago, when she was only 14.
However, it wasn’t a quick and easy process for the pair.
After seven years of persevering through medical roadblocks, Leah found out she was pregnant in week one of Mat filming The Block in Daylesford, Vic, after a round of IVF.
She made the choice not to tell Mat until he was back home in Adelaide due to concerns that it would distract him while he was trying to focus on The Block.
By then, she was already three months pregnant.
“I was so nervous,” Leah admits.
“After Mat returned, I booked in to get my hair done, the very last appointment that he had for the day, and I sat there in my baggy clothes and gave him a card. It had the ultrasound in it, and Mat just looked at me and said, ‘congratulations!’”
It took Mat a second to understand what was happening as it hadn’t clicked straight away.
“I suddenly realised I’m going to be a dad,” he says.
With their baby boy due in December, Mat can’t wait for Robby’s son Brooks, to have a friend to grow up alongside.
Telling his family
After publicly revealing his happy news in his exclusive interview with New Idea, Mat took to social media to share a video of the moment he told his family that he would be a father!
Sitting down at a kitchen table with some celebratory champagne ready to go, Mat told them he had “something very exciting” to share.
“Honestly, you’ll have no idea,” he told them in the video.
Mat proceeded to give them a gift bag and asked his mum to “pull something out”.
She then pulled out a baby onesie.
“You’re having a baby?” they questioned with disbelief.
“I’m having a baby,” he then confirmed.
“You’re gonna be a granny, and you’re gonna be an aunty!” he said to his shocked – and excited family.
His sister screamed with delight as he then confirmed that his little boy was due on December 18, 2025.
