Instead, as the long-time broadcaster approaches the milestone birthday, he’s feeling something he admits has taken a long time to find: contentment.
“I thought I would be stressing more at this point. I really thought that this was going to be one of those moments where I go, ‘I haven’t done this. I’m childless. I don’t know what I’m doing with life’. But I actually feel great about where I am right now,” he says.
That doesn’t mean he’s immune to comparison or self-doubt, something he admits he’s struggled with.
Like most people, he’s wondered whether he should be further ahead in life, ticking off society’s expected milestones. But lately, he’s been trying to let go of those expectations.
“I’ve also done all this cool stuff and look at my life,” he says. “It’s been reflective in a way a birthday never has before, but in a great way.”
Part of that reflection came from looking at his family; McLean vividly remembers his father turning 40 when he was 13 years old. He says it’s difficult not to occasionally compare the two lives, but he’s also learned there’s no perfect timeline.
The Hits Matty Mclean with husband Ryan Teece. Photo / Supplied
It’s been nearly four years since McLean married his long-term partner, ex-real estate agent Ryan Teece, and he says people constantly ask them if kids are in their plans.
“Ryan and I definitely talk about kids, but I have no news to share, sorry,” he says with a laugh.
“The idea of children still really excites me, but I also think I’m becoming really content with being happy with the life I live and lead. I’m just trying to find contentment rather than success or ticking off something or doing something because it feels like what you’re meant to do at this age and stage in life.”
But there are some things he’s decided to tick off, quite literally, this birthday.
As his 40th approached, the milestone inspired an ambitious personal project: a “40 Before 40” challenge.
McLean created a list of bucket-list experiences, adventures and challenges designed to push him out of his comfort zone, sharing it all with listeners.
He says the scariest was the Nevis Bungy jump in Queenstown, which at 134m, is the highest jump in New Zealand.
“But it also became one of my favourite experiences because I had to push through that fear and prove to myself that I could.”
Among the most meaningful experiences was volunteering for the Kindness Collective, which McLean says served as a reminder of the simple joy that comes from helping others. Another challenge involved getting his first tattoo after years of hesitation and a mother who strongly opposed the idea.
“Mum always told us, ‘Get a tattoo and you’ll be out of the will’,” he says with a laugh. But when she saw the final product, a small bear near his wrist, done by singer Teddy Swims before his Auckland concert, McLean says she approved.
The Hits Drive host Matty McLean got tattooed by Teddy Swims. Photo / NZME.
But there’s one thing on the list McLean says his mum will never know about, nor anyone else, as he’s permanently redacted it.
“This one’s just for me,” he explains.
It makes the mind boggle, given he’s happy to talk about the nude photoshoot that left him questioning the decision while driving to the photographer’s house, seriously considering turning around.
Once it was over, McLean says it could be summed up in one word: “liberating”.
That word comes up a lot when McLean reflects on the challenges he’s taken on as part of his list. Not because the list let him pose nude on a stool, but because it reinforced a lesson he’s come to cherish.
“Life is for living,” he says, admitting he knows that sounds like a quote you’d find framed in your mum’s kitchen. But he means it sincerely.
“We’re here for a short time, so grab it by its balls and squeeze it,” he says, erupting in that trademark laugh.
“Life can get crazy, or life can get mundane. But it doesn’t have to be mundane.
“Maybe you just pick one thing every year that pushes you slightly outside of your comfort zone, or you do something that you’ve always wanted to do but have never done. That way you can look back on the year and say, ‘That was a cool year. I got to do something I’ve always wanted to do, and what an awesome story to tell’.”
“At the end of the day, our job is just to make people smile – how incredible is that?” Photo / NZ Herald, Jason Dorday
The challenge also arrived during a period of personal reflection. McLean admits that over the past few years, he didn’t quite feel like himself.
“I have had to do some work in the last couple of years to really reignite my spark a little bit. I felt like I lost a little bit of that for a while, just life being busy and crazy and my friends’ lives being busy and crazy, and maybe not feeling like I was as connected to my circle as I would have liked to have been.
“But lately I’m feeling really reconnected to people, and I’m reminding myself how invaluable my friendships are. So I feel very empowered right now.”
A self-confessed people-pleaser, McLean says he’s spent much of his life prioritising the happiness of those around him. Entering a new decade, he admits he needs to put as much attention into finding his own joys.
“I need to be happy, too.”
McLean and Teece recently moved from central Auckland to a large lifestyle block, and McLean says the move has been a shift in their happiness.
McLean describes Teece as a “farm boy at heart” and says the move was his partner’s dream.
“I never thought I’d marry someone who rode horses and wanted to live on a 12-acre lifestyle block, but he’s the happiest he’s ever been,” McLean says.
“When you see your partner happy and content, isn’t that just an amazingly fulfilling feeling?”
McLean says the move mirrored the way Teece supported him through the twists and turns of his career in the past decade.
Daniel Faitaua, Hayley Holt, John Campbell and Matty McLean hosted Breakfast together from 2018-2019.
But just like moving to the country, moving from presenting TVNZ’s Breakfastin 2023 to co-hosting a radio show with his best friend PJ Harding felt right.
”… Our job is just to make people smile – how incredible is that?”
For someone who once worked in the high-pressure world of news and current affairs, he doesn’t take that privilege to spread joy lightly.
“News and current affairs is such an amazing and important thing, and God, we need it more than ever. But for me, I think I’ve realised this is where I’m happiest.”
As for what’s next, McLean says he’s ruling nothing out – not even a return to TV, but for now, he’s enjoying having his feet firmly planted where he’s standing.