MasterChef season one runner-up Poh Ling Yeow has had a relationship history as intriguing as some of her culinary creations.
The 50-year-old has been divorced twice, but she has managed to maintain friendships with both of her ex-husbands.
MasterChef favourite Poh has an interesting love life history.
(Image: Getty)Poh and her first husband Matt Phipps met when they were both Mormons, and leant on each other as they extricated themselves from the church a few years later. Though they divorced in 1999 after nine years of marriage, their split was anything but messy.
In fact, Matt is now married to Poh’s best friend of 20 years Sarah Rich, but there is no bad blood whatsoever.
“He’s my ex-husband. She’s my best friend. And when we broke up, they got together and it’s all dandy. It’s actually really good!” the MasterChef judge told Mamamia in 2017.
“Everyone tries to complicate it. From the outside in, they’re all like ‘love triangle!’ And I’m like, ‘no!’ He’s like my brother now and I think … people are never interested in the back story. They want everything to be sordid.”
Poh went on to marry Jono Bennett, whom she met on the set of MasterChef season one.
(Image: Getty Images)Poh then went on to marry aspiring actor Jonathan “Jono” Bennett, whom she met on the first season of MasterChef in 2009, where Jono was working as a production assistant.
“We weren’t really allowed to talk because that’s part of the rules. You can’t fraternise with the staff because I guess they can tell you secrets (about the next challenge) or something,” she explained.
“I think it got a little more charged because we weren’t allowed to talk to each other. It was like the playground … cute looks across the yard, sort of thing. Then, after the show we hooked up. There was a wrap party and we exchanged numbers straight away and it was all guns after that.”
WATCH BELOW: Poh Ling Yeow returns to MasterChef in 2020 as a contestant. Post continues after video…
However, Jono admitted to Now To Love that he was initially suspicious of Poh’s bond with her ex.
“It was hard at first, but it was my own personal issues of confidence in myself and jealousy, which had no reason to be there,” he confessed.
“It was something we all had to work on essentially. I know it’s very human to be jealous, but it doesn’t make it right.”
“He’s like my brother,” Poh added. “We’re much better suited as friends.”
Poh and Jono’s relationship with Matt and Sarah was so strong that the two couples went into business together in 2015, opening Jamface café at the Adelaide Central Market.
Poh and Jono pictured together in 2019.
(Image: Instagram @pohlingyeow)After being married for six years, Poh announced her and Jono has separated in early 2021.
“2021 is about doing the things I love and remembering who I am without another person,” Poh told The Weekend Australian following their breakup.
“Jono and I broke up … but [we] still work together and are the best of friends,” she confirmed. “It’s been the most untraumatic breakup possible, and I’m single again after 12 years.”
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