Married At First Sight expert John Aiken has revealed the heartbreaking final conversation he had with fellow expert Mel Schilling just before she died from colon cancer.<\/p>\n
A Current Affair on Wednesday paid tribute to Schilling, 54, following the TV sensation\u2019s death on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Just two weeks earlier, she had revealed her cancer had spread to her brain.<\/p>\n
In an Instagram post, Schilling\u2019s husband Gareth confirmed the tragic news, paying tribute to his soulmate the mother of their daughter Maddie, 11.<\/p>\n
He revealed his wife ushered him closer in her final moments \u2013 when he thought the cancer had taken away her ability to speak \u2013 and whispered a message for their daughter that he said would \u201csustain me for the rest of my life\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took all of her remaining strength, and that gesture summed up our wee Melsie perfectly,\u201d the post continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven then, her only thought was for Maddie and me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a woman who became a new mum and a TV star at 42 \u2014 and nailed both.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a woman who, through two years of chemotherapy, when she could barely lift her head from the pillow, never complained and never stopped showing courage, grace, compassion and empathy, and never missed a day of filming.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo most of you, she was Mel Schilling \u2014 matriarch of MAFS and queen of reality TV. To Maddie and me, she was our wee Melsie: an incredible mum, role model, and soulmate.\u201d<\/p>\n
ACA highlighted a reel of Schilling\u2019s most iconic and vibrant moments.<\/p>\n
She rose to prominence through her work on the Australian and UK versions of the reality TV show. <\/p>\n
Fellow expert John Aiken remembered how his co-host would \u201csing and dance\u201d with the hair and makeup team and Facetime her child.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would laugh, and we\u2019d sneak lollies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe lit up the room. She was larger than life, full of energy \u2013 beautiful smile, very glamorous.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut (she) had this huge heart.<\/p>\n
Aiken revealed when he saw Schilling for the final time last week, he was able to \u201clook her in the eye\u201d and tell her that he loved her and she \u201cmade a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe understood she had touched a lot of people all around the world,\u201d Aiken continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took her husband an Irish whisky, and we drank that. She had some memories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former MAFS couple Jules Robinson and Cam Merchant described how Schilling \u201cloved love\u201d and adored her job and \u201chelping people\u201d.<\/p>\n
Journalist and commentator Shelly Horton, who was Schilling\u2019s friend, described the love between Schilling and her husband Gareth, while saying she was also adored overseas.<\/p>\n
Schilling was first diagnosed with cancer in 2023.<\/p>\n
She was given the all-clear after the tumour was removed but largely kept her mental health struggles away from the public spotlight.<\/p>\n
In February 2024, she broke the news her cancer had mestasised and was now present in her lungs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Married At First Sight expert John Aiken has revealed the heartbreaking final conversation he had with fellow expert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,32095,109751,134,277934,277930,121211,61506,277935,277937,277933,277940,37690,277939,127799,277931,277938,121148,187436,700,277929,277932,277936],"class_list":["post-564418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-colon-cancer","tag-david-caird","tag-entertainment","tag-fellow-expert","tag-final-conversation","tag-final-moments","tag-final-time","tag-final-words","tag-gareth","tag-heartbreaking-final-conversation","tag-helping-people","tag-john-aiken","tag-jules-robinson","tag-maddie","tag-makeup-team","tag-mel-schilling-tribute","tag-mental-health-struggles","tag-newswire-news","tag-role-model","tag-shelly-horton","tag-tear-jerking-final-words","tag-vibrant-moments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}