Mel Schilling’s husband Gareth Brisbane has shared a heartbreaking tribute on their wedding anniversary, months after the Married at First Sight star’s death.
Gareth posted a wedding day photo of the couple kissing while holding their daughter, Maddie. He shared it to mark his first anniversary without Mel.
Mel died in March aged 54. Doctors had told her the cancer she had been diagnosed with had spread to her brain.
After her death, Gareth shared a statement on Instagram. He said Mel whispered a final message for him and Maddie that would sustain him for the rest of his life.
Mel Schilling’s husband marks a day that changed forever
Gareth and Mel married in Bali in 2018.
Gareth Brisbane was Mel Schilling’s husband and is the father of their daughter, Maddie.
- He and Schilling met on a dating website.
- The couple married in Bali in 2018.
- Mel said she met her husband when she was nearly 40.
- They welcomed their daughter when Schilling was nearly 42.
He said the anniversary had become one of the hardest days since her death. In his caption, he wrote: “Ah my one. Hard to reconcile that the anniversary of the happiest day of my life could become one of the saddest.
“We didn’t quite make eight years married or 15 years together but what a love and what a life we had!”
Gareth also looked back on their first date. He said he knew by the end of it that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
He added: “My love for you burned ever brighter, even as your own light faded. Sleep easy my girl, I hope you know that Maddie and I are in the best possible place to continue healing.
“She is every inch your daughter and you would be so proud of the remarkable young woman she is becoming.”
He ended the tribute with a line that captured his grief. He wrote: “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.”
The wedding memory that now feels even more poignant
The post carried extra weight because Mel had spoken openly about their wedding before. She described the day as deeply emotional.
She once admitted she “had a bit of a cry” because of what the moment meant to her.
She told Who Magazine: “It’s just the meaning of it all. I was a late bloomer in life. I didn’t meet my husband until I was nearly 40 and then we had our daughter when I was nearly 42, so to be finally saying our ‘I dos’ was an emotional time.
“It was very special.”
That memory now sits alongside the grief Gareth described in his latest post. It offers a glimpse into the private love story behind her public career.
In a March post about her terminal diagnosis, Mel made clear how much her family meant to her. She wrote: “These two beside me are my everything.”
Mel became a familiar face through Married at First Sight. Fans knew her as one of the show’s relationship experts.
Her death prompted an outpouring of sadness from viewers.