Matt Shirvington opens up on marriage and fatherhood
Matt Shrivington has opened up about marrying his "first crush" when he tied the knot with his wife in 2001.
The Sunrise host spoke candidly to Sydney Morning Herald about the early days of his relationship with his wife Jessica, sharing how the pair "made it official" when they were just 18 years old.
The 45-year-old reflected on his whirlwind romance, sharing how the couple met at a house party when they were teenagers.
“We went to separate schools but had mutual friends and saw one another often at house parties,” Shirvo said.
The former Olympian said the couple had a “false start” after Jess came down with chickenpox, while he was focused on his athletics career.
“But by the time we’d finished our Higher School Certificate (Year 12, in NSW), we’d made it official. We moved in together aged 18 and started our lives as a couple,” he added.
Jess and Matt married in 2001 and moved to London a year later, after Matt was based in England for his athletics training.
Their family grew in 2006 when they welcomed their first child Sienna, before deciding to return to Australia in 2008.
The couple had a second daughter, Winter, soon after, and went on to have a son, Lincoln, who is six.
Shirvo shared how much he loves raising daughters and getting to see their sense of independence grow.
“They’re great young women, strong and powerful, and I love seeing their desire for independence,” Shirvo said.
“Sienna is extremely artistic and Winnie is ambitious about sport – she just competed in the under-17s National Rowing Championships."
“It doesn’t matter what it is, if your kids have a passion for something and love waking up in the morning to do it, you’ll back it to the end of the earth as a parent.”
On Monday morning's episode of Sunrise, Nat Barr praised the article and Shirvo for his heartwarming words about his family.
“Interesting article in the paper over the weekend about our very own Shirvo — who got candid about life, love, and family,” Barr said, referring to the piece.
“I wanted to give you a shout-out — it was really lovely, I loved reading it.”
“My favourite part was when you said, ‘I never had a celebrity crush growing up, but I did marry my first crush’ It was a really gorgeous story,” Barr said of the piece.
Image credits: Instagram