Topics: Mel Schilling, Married At First Sight, Reality TV, Celebrity, Channel 4
Gareth Brisbane, the widow of Married At First Sight star Mel Schilling, has shared a tribute on Instagram for what would have been the couple's sixth wedding anniversary.
Schilling died following a battle with colon cancer that first began in 2023.
She announced in March that the disease had spread to other areas of her body, including her lungs and brain, despite the reality TV star undergoing 16 rounds of chemotherapy and previously being placed into remission.
"These two beside me are my everything," the Channel 4 star wrote of her husband, Gareth - whom she wed in Bali, Indonesia, in 2020 - and their 10-year-old daughter, Maddie.
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Weeks later, the family shared that Schilling had died, aged 53.
This weekend would have marked she and Gareth's wedding anniversary, prompting him to share another sweet tribute in her memory, being that it's the first he'll be forced to celebrate alone.
The father-of-one uploaded a photo of the couple kissing and holding their daughter in their arms on their wedding day.
"Ah, my one. Hard to reconcile that the anniversary of the happiest day of my life could become one of the saddest," Gareth wrote. "We didn’t quite make eight years married or 15 years together, but what a love and what a life we had!"
He went on to recall their first date many years prior, claiming he'd known since then that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with the dating expert.
"My love for you burned ever brighter, even as your own light faded," Gareth continued. "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."
Gareth concluded: "Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal."
Schilling previously discussed having met Gareth eight years prior to their wedding.
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."
