{"id":547049,"date":"2026-07-13T07:43:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/547049\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T07:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T07:43:17","slug":"mafs-australia-mel-schillings-husband-gareth-brisbane-shares-anniversary-tribute-for-late-wife-married-at-first-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/547049\/","title":{"rendered":"MAFS Australia: Mel Schilling\u2019s husband Gareth Brisbane shares anniversary tribute for late wife | Married At First Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Married at First Sight<\/a> expert Mel Schilling<\/a>\u2019s husband, Gareth Brisbane<\/a>, has paid tribute to his late wife on what would have been their anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cHard to reconcile that the anniversary of the happiest day of my life could become one of the saddest,\u201d he shared on Mel\u2019s Instagram account.<\/p>\n

\"Mel<\/p>\n

Mel and Gareth married in Bali in 2018.\u00a0Instagram\/@mel_schilling1<\/p>\n

The MAFS expert\u00a0died aged 53<\/a> on March 24, just 11 days after sharing that her cancer was terminal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Almost four months on, Gareth marked what should have been a special relationship milestone for the pair, alongside a photo from their wedding day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t quite make eight years married or 15 years together, but what a love and what a life we had,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the end of our first date I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, and my love for you burned ever brighter, even as your own light faded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gareth and Mel shared 11-year-old daughter, Maddie, who Gareth said was just like her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cSleep easy, my girl, I hope you know that Maddie and I are in the best possible place to continue healing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is every inch your daughter and you would be so proud of the remarkable young woman she is becoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

He concluded with an Irish proverb, \u201cDeath leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mel and Gareth met on the online dating site eHarmony, with the long-time TV expert being open about how he \u201cturned her life upside down\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"MAFS<\/p>\n

After meeting in Australia, Gareth and Mel relocated to the UK in 2021.\u00a0Instagram @mel_schilling1<\/p>\n

Gareth, from Northern Ireland but living in Adelaide at the time, and Mel spoke every day for six weeks before meeting in person and from there, they were all in.<\/p>\n

After suffering a miscarriage, they went through 12 months of IVF to welcome Maddie, born in November 2014, when Schilling was 42.<\/p>\n

In December 2023, Mel shared she had been diagnosed with colon cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She openly shared her journey through treatment on social media and became a strong advocate for getting checked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On March 13, Mel shared her cancer had spread to her brain and her oncology team told her there was nothing further they could do.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy light is starting to fade \u2013 and quickly. But I am still here, still fighting, and surrounded by the most incredible love,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Mel<\/p>\n

Mel and Gareth welcomed their daughter, Maddie, in November 2014.\u00a0Instagram\/Mel Schilling<\/p>\n

Gareth announced his wife\u2019s death just days later on March 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn her final moments, when I thought cancer had taken away her ability to speak, she ushered me closer and whispered a message for Maddie and me that will sustain me for the rest of my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took all of her remaining strength, and that gesture summed up our wee Melsie perfectly.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven then, her only thought was for Maddie and me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Married at First Sight expert Mel Schilling\u2019s husband, Gareth Brisbane, has paid tribute to his late wife on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-547049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}