Bachelor couple Matty J and Laura’s first photos as a family of four

Bachelor success story Matty J and Laura Byrne on the many ways parenthood has changed them and learning to laugh it off when they become the targets of media scrutiny.

In the four years since you were both on The Bachelor, you’ve gotten engaged – with plans to marry at the end of this year – and become parents to daughters, one-year-old Marlie-Mae and Lola, who was born just 13 weeks ago.

Do you ever look back in wonder at it all?

Laura Byrne: [Laughs]. All the time. Both Matt and I go, “Holy sh*t, we’re so lucky.” We hoped that we’d meet someone on the show, but there’s no way in hell either of us could ever have expected that we’d meet the person we’re going to spend the rest of our lives with and have a family with – and that all of this would come from doing a reality TV show.

But we’re so grateful for it. That’s why we both get so invested in reality TV. Apart from all the drama that goes with it, there are real people involved. And it can really be life-changing.

“There aren’t many women who would welcome their partner going out the door to train for a competition six days a week as soon as their second child was born.” (Picture: Manolo Campion)

“when the tabloids write their articles, we genuinely just have a laugh now.” (Picture: Manolo Campion)

Well, it certainly was for you both. How has becoming parents changed you?

LB: It’s made me way more patient. And I definitely cry a lot more now [laughs]. I’m a lot more emotional. I was crying at the Qantas ad on TV the other day.

Matty J: It’s the same for me. All of a sudden, tapping into your emotions is so much easier. There are little triggers, like an advert or even another dad being upset in a movie, [but] it’s enough to make me cry. I’m like, “What is going on?”

LB: It also gives you a different perspective. I used to worry about the way I looked; I worried about things that now I feel are a lot more superficial. It’s not that I don’t care about the way I look now, it’s just that there’s something greater than me that I care about.

Especially the fact that we have two little girls – I want to be able to be a good role model for them and make sure the things I’m putting my energy and my time into are things that when they get a bit older, they can be proud of.

“I want to be able to be a good role model for them.” (Picture: Manolo Campion)

Matty, you’ve just come off Dancing With The Stars. How did you find the training, especially with two young ones at home?

MJ: It was pretty wild. I underestimated just how much time I needed to dedicate to Dancing With The Stars.

I’ve got to give a huge amount of credit to Laura. There aren’t many women who would welcome their partner going out the door to train for a competition six days a week as soon as their second child was born. I didn’t think I was going to do it because timing-wise, it was just too difficult.

But Laura was like, “No, you’re 100 per cent doing this.”

Matty J with his dance partner Ruby Gherbaz. (Picture: Dancing With The Stars)

LB: Yeah, Matt would come home and show me his dancing and I’d be like, “You need to train more, buddy.” [Laughs].

It was a busy time. I was working on my new range for ToniMay [Byrne’s jewellery company], plus doing my podcast Life Uncut [with co-host Brittany Hockley]. Plus there were times when Marlie was unwell. It was really insane.

It can be pretty intense being a media personality and having a lot of what you do or say become a headline.

Laura, this recently happened to you [following comments Byrne made in March about a Down-syndrome doll, and then remarks about the Instagram gossip account Celeb Spellcheck].

How do you both deal with the pressure of a public persona?

Matty J & Laura Byrne and her co-host Brittany Hockley recording their podcast, Life Uncut. (Picture: Supplied)

MJ: To be honest, I don’t think there’s a lot of pressure with it. We’re so fortunate that my career is one of the best jobs in the world: to do stupid videos on social media and make people laugh and to learn how to dance and do a competition on TV.

It’s just a lot of fun for me – it really doesn’t feel like work.

LB: When The Bachelor finished, I found social media really overwhelming. And that was because I was trying to be perfect. So the pressure I was feeling, I was putting on myself; whereas now I don’t want to be anything other than who I am. We’re both really authentically us on social media – at least we try to be.

That means the pressure isn’t there anymore because we’re not trying to be anybody other than who we are. And sometimes when the tabloids write their articles, we genuinely just have a laugh now. It’s become a running theme to just be like, “What have they written today? What sensational headlines have they put out?”

Matty J and Laura Byrne feature in this Sunday’s Stellar.

It can be hard to find moments for romance when you have little children. How do you find “couple time”?

LB: You have to really carve out time as a couple, because at the end of the day, if you don’t prioritise your relationship and make sure that you’re still caring for each other as much as you’re caring for your kids and your work and everything else, then that’s the thing that ends up suffering.

Matt and I love each other so much and we’re so lucky that we’re supportive of each other. The good thing is that we both work a lot from home and we have similar careers.

We’re in Byron Bay right now with the kids, and celebrating Mother’s Day here today. We’ve been really looking forward to spending this time together.

Originally published as Bachelor couple Matty J and Laura’s first photos as a family of four