Being a relationship expert on Australia’s most controversial reality show, Married At First Sight, there’s very little that Mel Schilling hasn’t been able to navigate through.
But it’s that tenacity for relationship problem-solving that’s also been applied to her own life, particularly with her journey to motherhood.
“I didn’t think I was going to be a mum,” the 50-year-old tells Woman’s Day.
“I was single for my entire 30s and having a baby wasn’t even on my radar until it was almost too late!”
Mel Schilling didn’t think she’d become a mother.
(Image: Tina Smigielski/Are Media)
Mel reveals she was 39 when she met her now-husband Gareth Brisbane on dating website eHarmony, and before she knew it, she was pregnant.
“I was 40 and we had that conversation and almost immediately I was pregnant. It was ridiculous,” she says.
“I didn’t cope with that very well. I kind of went into denial about it but just as I finally started to get excited about it, I had a miscarriage.
“But what that did, as painful as it was, is solidified that I absolutely wanted to be a mum.”
After several unsuccessful attempts at getting pregnant again, the couple turned to IVF, and thankfully, Mel was able to fall pregnant with daughter Maddie.
“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 and her now seven-year-old daughter’s close bond is evident as they run around a Melbourne park for us – in matching outfits no less – with Mel admitting she’s enjoying every minute out of it.
“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,” she says.
Experiencing a miscarriage “solidified that I absolutely wanted to be a mum.”
(Image: Tina Smigielski/Are Media)But that’s about as far as Maddie’s interest in her mother’s career in TV goes.
“She always says, ‘Oh, are you on TV again? That boring TV show,'” she laughs.
“But after we did this photoshoot, she ran straight across the road to the neighbours and was like, ‘Mummy and I just did a photoshoot and we’re going to be in a magazine!'”
While Mel is never short of words of advice, when asked how she’s going to cope when her own daughter begins to date, she’s stumped for words.
WATCH: Mel Schilling appears on the UK version of MAFS. Story continues after video.
“Oh my! You’re making me nervous,” she says.
“I feel very fortunate, you know she’s seven now, and she doesn’t even mention a boy’s name. She has zero interest in boys.
“But I have a very strong focus on safety in dating, and so it’s going to be very much about safety, that’s what I’m going to try to armour her with.”
And how about if Maddie comes home one day, when she is old enough, with a MAFS application in hand? “If that was her choice, I’d support her in that,” she enthuses.
“She has zero interest in boys,” Mel says of her daughter.
(Image: Tina Smigielski/Are Media)“I’d like to think that in the first seven years of her life, and in the next 10, that we do a good enough job of instilling strong values, self-worth and respect in her that if she went on MAFS, she’d cope with it and she’d handle herself well.”
So can we expect to see Mel dishing out dating advice on MAFS for a few more years to come?
“We’re moving to the UK in March!” she lets slip. “I will still be doing both MAFS UK and MAFS Australia – but I’ll be based in the UK.
“My hubby is from there and we have family there, so we feel very comfortable. I’m so excited.”
