Mel Schilling started TV career and became a mum at surprising age - here's the huge lesson she taught us

Earlier this month, Married at First Sight favourite Mel Schilling announced her cancer had spread to her brain, saying in a heartbreaking update to fans how she’d been told by her oncology team there was ‘nothing further they can do'.

Just two weeks later, news came that she had sadly passed away, aged 53. It came as a huge, sudden blow to those who had hoped she’d have at least a little longer.

“Life can be beautiful, and life can be incredibly cruel,” her husband Gareth Brisbane wrote in a statement on Schilling’s Instagram page yesterday (24 March).

“But ultimately, life is fleeting, fragile, and tomorrow is promised to no one. If you can do anything to honour Mel, please live life to the full, love your people well, and try not to sweat the small stuff.”

Mel Schilling with husband Gareth Brisbane and their daughter Maddie (Instagram/@mel_schilling1)

But there was one line that stuck out for me most in Brisbane’s poignant tribute.

“This is a woman who became a new mum and a TV star at 42 — and nailed both,” he wrote. It was short and to the point, but the message landed loud and clear.

Mel Schilling's late-blooming TV career

Schilling had quietly, but confidently, bucked the trend in two areas that famously don't favour a woman in her 40s - not only taking both on, but doing so practically simultaneously.

When she became a household name via Married at First Sight, many of us probably assumed she was already well known in her native Australia, but her big break came through the show itself, in 2016.

Schilling joined Married at First Sight in 2016 (Channel 4)

Schilling had previously studied psychology at university, landing her first job in child protective services before migrating to the corporate scene.

She’s always kept a tentative toe in another pool, though, remaining involved in amateur musical theatre, bagging a brief role in Aussie soap Neighbours before finding something more lasting as a regular guest on former panel show The Circle, where she served as a resident relationship expert.

After seeing the first series of MAFS, Schilling was captivated. She reached out to a producer and they met at a wine bar for a chat.

"I presented myself to Channel Nine as a potential expert for MAFS when no opening existed, and landed the gig," she told 9Honey.

Starting a family

As well as navigating a bold career change, Schilling was in the throes of her new phase as a mother, having given birth to her first child in November 2014.

She and husband Gareth, who met when they were both approaching 40, had to turn to IVF to start their family.

Schilling explained on Davina McCall's Begin Again podcast how, after they tried a first round, 'nothing happened at all'.

"But then my doctor called me the next day and she said we've got this little egg that wasn't developed in time but it is now," she continued, adding: "I thought 'why not?' Nothing to lose. Popped it in and that's Maddie."

She and Gareth had their first child via IVF (Instagram/@mel_schilling1)

It's devastating that Schilling's brightest era has been cut tragically short, but her early-40s pivot is an important reminder that it's not necessarily too late to brave a big chance - and to even 'nail' it.

Her legacy remains one of undeniable hope, for someone whose biological clock is ticking loudly, for someone whose career feels flat, for someone starting to feel irrelevant as they inch closer to menopause.

"To most of you, she was Mel Schilling — matriarch of MAFS and queen of reality TV," Brisbane told fans.

"To Maddie and me, she was our wee Melsie: an incredible mum, role model, and soulmate."

All of these, you'll notice, are pretty iconic labels to have accumulated in mid-life.

"Please live life to the full," her husband's words echo loudly.