{"id":881748,"date":"2026-09-06T05:42:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T05:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/881748\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T05:42:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T05:42:34","slug":"married-at-first-sights-nic-jovanovic-made-a-choice-at-24-that-finally-paid-off-when-his-daughter-arrived-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/881748\/","title":{"rendered":"Married At First Sight\u2019s Nic Jovanovic made a choice at 24 that finally paid off when his daughter arrived this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holding his daughter Sofija<\/a> for the first time, Nic Jovanovic was transported back in time to a doctor\u2019s office he sat in when he was just 24.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d just been diagnosed with testicular cancer<\/a> and his oncologist was urging him to freeze sperm before starting treatment, just in case the combination of chemotherapy and surgery destroyed his fertility<\/a> forever.<\/p>\n

\"Nic<\/p>\n

Nic Jovanovic couldn\u2019t have been more proud on the day his daughter Sofija came into the world.\u00a0@nicccj<\/p>\n

At the time, Nic wanted to brush it off.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get told that you\u2019ve got cancer, [and] now you\u2019ve got to think about whether you can have children in the future,\u201d he told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018I don\u2019t need to worry about this yet, I\u2019ve got no plans for children.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Family planning and fertility were the last thing on his mind as he scheduled chemo appointments and hospital admissions, but the oncologist insisted.<\/p>\n

Now 36, Nic will be forever grateful to his 24-year-old self for listening.<\/p>\n

If he hadn\u2019t, he might have never become a father to biological children, and he and wife Alex Jovanovic<\/a> might have never welcomed Sofja into their family.<\/p>\n

Alex already had two daughters, aged eight and six, from a previous relationship when she and Nic fell in love.<\/p>\n

Nic embraced his role as stepdad long before he wed Alex in July 2025 and made the title official, but he also dreamed of giving the girls another little brother or sister \u2013 one with his eyes and Alex\u2019s smile.<\/p>\n

\"MAFS<\/p>\n

Nic popped the question to Alex on a romantic trip to Europe in 2024.\u00a0Instagram<\/p>\n

The idea of having a child with Alex made the hardship he faced in his 20s worth it.<\/p>\n

Freezing sperm before undergoing cancer treatment was an isolating experience for Nic; blokes his age didn\u2019t understand, and there were no male fertility influencers in the 2010s he could look to for advice or an idea of what to expect.<\/p>\n

He had no way of knowing how much it would cost him financially either, especially not in the long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no subsidies, and it\u2019s about $50 a month to store [frozen sperm], so that\u2019s $600 every year I\u2019ve been storing it,\u201d Nic said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people possibly can\u2019t afford that, and that\u2019s a sad reality if they\u2019re already going through cancer treatment and then they\u2019ve got another cost on top that\u2019s not subsidised.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"At<\/p>\n

At 24, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy and surgery.\u00a0@nicccj<\/p>\n

He\u2019s spent more than $7000 on storage since his diagnosis and is still paying today, just in case he and Alex want to try for another child.<\/p>\n

The cost felt justified when he was diagnosed with cancer again in 2019.<\/p>\n

Nic had to undergo chemotherapy again, as well as surgery to remove a teste, which would have made his chances of conceiving naturally even less likely.<\/p>\n

He was glad to have that reserve of frozen sperm, no matter the cost.<\/p>\n

But the cost didn\u2019t end there.<\/p>\n

Nic and Alex started putting money away to start a family long before they started in vitro fertilisation (IVF), which can cost up to $17,000 per cycle in Australia.<\/p>\n

There was a physical and emotional cost to consider as well, at least for Alex.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of having another baby wasn\u2019t daunting, and making that decision with Nic was really easy. It was just the IVF that was unknown,\u201d she told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted to make sure it worked for Nic because I felt like he probably had a lot more riding on it for him, and we had limited shots at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a finite amount of frozen sperm available, they started trying for a baby.<\/p>\n

\"Nic<\/p>\n

Despite the financial, physical and emotional costs, Nic and Alex went into IVF with a shared positive outlook.\u00a0@nicccj<\/p>\n

Many couples go through multiple IVF cycles before falling pregnant, and some never do, so Nic and Alex knew there were no guarantees they\u2019d succeed.<\/p>\n

\"Nic<\/p>\n

Nic and Alex never dreamed they\u2019d conceive on their first try.\u00a0@nicccj<\/p>\n

They never dreamed the first round of IVF would work.<\/p>\n

Alex got a call from the clinic last year and surprised Nic with a positive pregnancy test in a gift box when he arrived home from work that day.<\/p>\n

Naturally, he burst into tears; he couldn\u2019t believe their luck.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first scan where we heard a heartbeat, my heart just exploded … it still makes me so smitten and happy just thinking about it,\u201d Nic said.<\/p>\n

He was in tears again when baby Sofija arrived in May this year, and welled up recounting that precious moment to nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just remember holding Alex\u2019s hand, and crying. I was bawling my eyes out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Nic<\/p>\n

Nic\u2019s heart \u201cexploded\u201d the first time he saw Sofija and held her in his arms.\u00a0@nicccj<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such an incredible feeling. I look at Alex, and I don\u2019t want to get emotional talking about it, but I\u2019m just so, so blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

This will be Nic\u2019s first Father\u2019s Day with Sofija and he plans to make it extra special by shaving and dyeing his hair the very next day for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation\u2019s Brave Shave 2026.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be taking part in honour of the man he was at 24, and in solidarity with every other Aussie facing cancer right now.<\/p>\n

Nic survived cancer and was lucky enough to go on to have a family, but not everyone gets that happy ending.<\/p>\n

\"Nic<\/p>\n

Nic will be shaving his hair after Father\u2019s Day in honour of the man he was at 24, when he was first diagnosed with cancer.\u00a0@nicccj<\/p>\n

He wants his story to serve as a warning for other young men to take their health seriously and think about how their choices today may affect their fertility years down the line, even if that doesn\u2019t seem like a big concern in the present moment.<\/p>\n

Because while Aussie women have become more educated and vocal about fertility, men are lagging behind. Nic wants to change that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019ve tried to use my platform as best I can to raise awareness for cancer and young blokes that are affected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He wants Aussie blokes to leave the old \u201cshe\u2019ll be right\u201d mentality behind and accept that they\u2019re not invincible.<\/p>\n

Because if he hadn\u2019t accepted that at 24, he might not have listened to his oncologist, and he might not be a father today.<\/p>\n

Registrations are now open for the ACRF Brave Shave 2026. Learn more\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Holding his daughter Sofija for the first time, Nic Jovanovic was transported back in time to a doctor\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-881748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881748","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=881748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}