‘No better place to heal’: Mel Schilling’s widower makes emotional announcement one month after her death

Gareth Brisbane just made a major announcement about his and Maddie’s future.

A month on from losing his wife, Gareth Brisbane is closing one chapter and opening another – and those who knew Mel Schilling best say it’s exactly what she would have wanted.

The widower of the beloved Married At First Sight relationship expert took to Instagram to reveal he and the couple’s 11-year-old daughter, Maddie, are leaving their life in the UK behind and starting fresh in Bali – a place the family had long held close to their hearts.

The post opened with a tribute to Mel herself, sharing photographs from her private funeral and touching on a heartfelt moment that stopped Gareth in his tracks.

“Maddie announced on the morning of the funeral that she had written a little speech which she delivered beautifully,” he wrote. “Every inch her mother’s daughter and I couldn’t be prouder.”

The ceremony, held on April 9th, was kept intimate – family and close friends only, with Mel’s Australian relatives joining via livestream. The following weekend, Gareth travelled to his hometown of Whitehead in Northern Ireland to fulfil one of Mel’s final wishes, scattering some of her ashes at the local lighthouse.

“It’s a special place that really resonated with her,” he wrote – somewhere where strangers greet each other in passing, and somewhere he and Maddie can now return to whenever they need to feel close to her again.
(Credit: Instagram)
Then came the announcement. Within weeks, the father and daughter will be touching down in Bali, welcomed back by a community of friends who had already held a blessing ceremony for Mel at the family’s new villa there.

“No better place to heal,” Gareth said simply

The response from Mel’s inner circle was immediate and warm. Fellow MAFS expert Alessandra Rampolla was among those flooding the comments, writing that heading to Bali was “the most Mel thing possible.”

Mel Schilling passed away on March 25th, aged 54, after her colon cancer spread to her brain.

In the statement announcing her death, Gareth revealed that even in her final moments she had found the strength to whisper a private message to him – one he described as sustaining him for the rest of his life.

“Even then,” he wrote, “her only thought was for Maddie and me.”