The Bachelor’s Matty J and Laura Byrne on being new parents
In their first family photo shoot and interview since daughter Marlie-Mae was born, Matthew “Matty J” Johnson and Laura Byrne talk about delivery dramas, learning to expect the unexpected and their wedding plans.
Stellar
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Matthew Johnson insists he isn’t much different since he and fiancee Laura Byrne welcomed their first child into the world.
“Being a dad was something I always wanted,” he tells Stellar.
“I was that guy in the office — whenever somebody would bring a child into work, all the women would run and see it, and I was there with them. So this shift has been easy to manage.”
But not long ago, he was watching TV with his nearly four-month-old daughter Marlie-Mae when an advertisement came on.
“It was about the AFLW,” recalls Johnson, 32.
“And there was the lady who kicked the football, Tayla Harris, and they made her the centrepiece, talking about how the game has changed for women. I’m thinking, you know … all this change is happening, and it’s going to benefit my daughter.
“I am now a lot more sensitive, and so much more emotional. I was in tears watching it.”
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Thankfully there has been far more laughter than crying in the lives of Johnson and Byrne — who met and fell in love during his stint as the Bachelor two years ago — since Marlie-Mae (who is named after her two grandmothers) arrived.
When they greet Stellar in the offices of ToniMay — the jewellery brand Byrne runs with her sister and occasional nanny Alisia — the new mum triumphantly announces,
“Got to work today, there was a poonami. It was all over the front of me and her. Matt didn’t put her nappy on properly, so … it’s his fault.”
The banter is easy between the new parents, who say their little girl’s demeanour has been the same since she was born on June 19, even if her actual arrival was not exactly a walk in the park. Byrne wanted a natural birth, but ended up being induced.
“And then I was in labour and I didn’t get a break. It was just a constant contraction. So after about an hour I was like, f**k this. Give me all the drugs,” Byrne says.
“It was like night and day, going from being curled over the bed throwing up in agony to sitting up having a chat. I was so off my rocket.”
Complicating matters was the fact Marlie-Mae was in a posterior position.
“They didn’t realise it right away, either,” recalls Byrne, 33.
“She was stuck; they needed to get her out immediately. So there were complications and it wasn’t the easiest of births. But I was just so happy that she was out and in the world that my memory of it is not traumatic.”
Adds Johnson, “It was brutal, sitting on the sidelines watching her get belted like that. I’m going, ‘This is not how I thought it would work.’”
He turns to Byrne.
“And I just wanted to help you as best I could. But there is nothing you can really do other than, like, calling a midwife and holding your hand.”
Without missing a beat, she replies, “What you shouldn’t do is sing along to Ed Sheeran while someone is in the middle of a contraction.”
Byrne, in fact, had a surprise pregnancy before Marlie-Mae came along, but ended up miscarrying.
“And I felt very alone, as though there must be something wrong with me,” she admits.
“But the more I spoke to people, I realised how common it is; so I speak about it with honesty because there is still such a stigma around it, and I don’t want to feel as if I’m rubbing a happy ending in someone else’s face, like it was just so easy.”
Unwanted birthing suite concerts aside, Byrne says Johnson has pulled his parenting weight.
“I always knew Matt would be a good dad,” she says.
“But there is always a fear your fantasy won’t come through, or will fall short of what you hope.
“Things are hard with newborns — they’re crying all the time, you don’t know what you’re doing. But there has not been one moment where Matt’s been like, ‘Oh my god, this is driving me crazy,’ or put any of it back on me.
“It’s always felt very much like both of us doing this, and that he has loved the journey just as much as me.”
With no hired help and parents who live in Brisbane, Townsville and Wollongong, the Bondi-based couple rely on each other to juggle work and childcare.
His gigs presenting radio on Nova FM and hosting the Network 10 series Luxury Escapes: The World’s Best Holidays took Johnson back to work almost immediately after Marlie-Mae was born.
Byrne, on the other hand, says she “really struggled right away, feeling maybe my whole identity was just going to be ‘Mum’”.
The self-proclaimed “turning point” came when Byrne decided to go back to work after six weeks, often with Marlie-Mae in tow.
“And it was funny to me,” she says.
“Because that was quite negatively perceived by some — and it was only other women, specifically other women with kids. Almost like, ‘How could you?’ But it helped me. I realised being Laura Byrne and being a new mum could actually coexist. This new role adds to my life; it doesn’t have to become my entire life.”
Thanks to the nature of their courtship, one wonders if they get bothered in public — particularly during their neighbourhood walks.
“It’s pretty rare,” says Johnson.
“More people are looking at our dog Buster, with his three legs.”
They would like Marlie-Mae to have a sibling but would prefer to get married first. But good luck getting them to agree when pressed for details about the ceremony.
Byrne admits they have not begun preparations, and they haggle openly (but lovingly) over the size of the guest list.
She targets “mid-next year” for a date; he says it’ll be “the second half of next year. Then we can have baby number two”.
To which Byrne replies: “Yeah, I don’t want to be pregnant. In a wedding dress? Talk about a logistical nightmare.”
Originally published as The Bachelor’s Matty J and Laura Byrne on being new parents