Young love: Matt and Jessica Shirvington met at 17 and are still going strong, 3 kids later
The Olympian and his author wife credit their relationship success to their young love.
After appearing as a casual host on Sunrise for about 18 months, Australian athlete and journalist Matt Shirvington joined Natalie Barr on the couch as a full-time presenter in June 2023.
The former sprinter, and sports commentator took over as co-host of Channel Seven’s popular breakfast TV program when David ‘Kochie’ Koch stepped down after 21 years.
As a dad of three, the Olympian is well qualified to carry on the dad-jokes that his predecessor, Kochie was renowned for – although he did admit that he was more nervous about the new gig than he had even been, “including the Olympics”.
Matt Shirvington’s family
Forty-five-year-old Matt – often known as Shirvo – has three children with the love of his life, YA author, 45yo Jessica Shirvington. The couple fell in love at the tender age of 17 and have two teenage daughters, Sienna (17) and Winter (15), and a young son, Lincoln (5).
Jessica credits their early age romance and its longevity for contributing to how she tackles relationships in her young adult novels, and Matt himself says it’s that young love that has helped make his marriage the success that it is.
Jessica, Matt and world class running
Matt shared that Jessica’s support through his sporting career is something that helped keep them together.
Sport-loving Shirvo competed at seven Athletics World Championships, as well as the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and Melbourne in 2006. In Malaysia, he placed fourth and broke the Australian 100m record.
“[Jessica] went through an Olympic period in my life where I was competing and preparing for the Olympic games and my mood swings were massive because I lived and died by my performance,” Matt said. “She worked through all of that.”
Shirvo was an incredible athelete – the second fastest Australian sprinter of all time – and while he didn’t place in the 2000 Olympics, the then 22yo came fifth, placing him in the top 10 sprinters in the world.
Like many couples who found each other at a young age, Matt and Jessica have had their ups and downs, but Matt says that has only made them stronger.
“Allowing each other to be ourselves but supporting each other is probably the key to that,” he told Kidspot. “We had our times where we broke up and got back together. Now we just don’t blame each other.
Matt and Jessica’s struggle to have kids
Matt and Jessica are famously private when it comes to keeping their children’s lives out of the public eye, but they have been open with their struggles to fall pregnant the third time due to some issues Jessica was having with endometriosis.
“We tried and failed to have a third and let it go on the back-burner. Then 9 years after, Lincoln came along,” Matt told Kidspot.
The couple did begin IVF, however eventually Jessica was able to fall pregnant naturally.
“She went and had some surgery to clean things up and ultimately we got to a point where she was able to probably fall pregnant naturally,” Matt shared. “But we still had about 14 frozen embryos. I don’t think infertility was the issue, it was more that the endometriosis was making her struggle to fall pregnant.”
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