Leaving their two young kids, Harper, 5, and Imogen, 3, for six months to go on House Rules was the hardest thing that Shayn and Carly have ever had to do.
“I think part of us knew it was going to be hard,” Carly tells New Idea.
“But I don’t think anything could actually have prepared us for just how much it was going to take a toll.”
But, they had a secret weapon up their sleeves – Shayn’s mum, Christine Harrison.
“My mum took time off to look after them,” says Shayn. “She’s been doing an amazing job because when we FaceTime every afternoon – the kids are just so happy.”
“She’s a wonderful woman. I actually don’t think we could ever repay her,” adds Carly. “We couldn’t have done this without her.”
While Shayn and Carly have been happily married for six years, the couple didn’t meet under the most joyful of circumstances.
“Shayn and I met through my ex-partner, who was killed in a freak accident 10 years ago” Carly says.
And Shayn, who was mates with her ex-partner, was there by Carly’s side throughout the experience.
“He was how I got through it all, really,” she says.
“After the accident, Carly ended up moving back up to where we were living at the time,” says Shayn. “Myself and my best mate were moving out into a shared house and we asked.
Carly if she wanted to move in … it kind of went from there, really.”
But, in the early days of the relationship, Carly struggled to accept her feelings for Shayn.
“Shayn told me he liked me and I actually ran away,” she reveals.
“I moved back to the coast after he told me because I was like, ‘I don’t even know if I can handle this.’”
Of course, Shayn didn’t give up and the pair eventually moved in together and he proposed after a year.
They were married just a year after that.
“When you know, you know,” Shayn says of their whirlwind relationship.
“I kinda feel like my ex-partner set me on that path,” adds Carly.
And while, it all turned out well, Carly admits that she still struggles with her ex partner's death.
“It has been 10 years, so it does get a little bit easier,” she says. “But I still get teary talking about it.”