Married at First Sight Australia stars Martha Kalifatidis and Michael Brunelli have announced they are expecting their first child.
The couple, who met on the popular dating show in 2019 and got engaged last December, shared the news in a video posted to Instagram on Monday (5 September).
“We wanted to explain our situation and make a bit of an announcement, and that is that Martha is pregnant,” Brunelli told viewers.
Offering an explanation for her recent social media absence, Kalifatidis revealed that she had been diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum five weeks into the pregnancy.
This is a condition that causes excessive nausea and vomiting, and often needs hospital treatment.
According to the NHS, it is estimated to affect between one to three in every 100 pregnant women.
“It hasn’t been this exciting, wonderful time for us,” Kalifatidis explained. “I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, we are so excited, we are so happy, it was a complete surprise.”
“But at five weeks I was diagnosed with hyper [sic] which is basically severe chronic nausea and vomiting with no relief. It’s 24/7.
“I literally didn’t get out of bed for two months as I was so sick, I could not eat or drink anything. There were days that I wouldn’t even get up to pee,” she said.
Kalifatidis said she lost 10kg because of the condition, and that the couple had been “in and out of the emergency room”.
“But now I’m seeing an amazing doctor. She has given me some medication that has literally been life changing, so it is helping me to feel human again and start moving around again,” Kalifatidis said.
Brunelli added: “It was too early to share as well. We had to disappear offline and give a few excuses.”
Writing in the comments, Brunelli said the couple have chosen to keep the baby’s gender a surprise.
“For the record, we don’t know the gender. We haven’t opened the envelope yet,” he said.
