Married at First Sight couple from Sheffield who wed as strangers announce they're expecting a baby together

Sheffield couple Michelle Walder and Owen Jenkin, who wed as strangers on the Channel 4 programme in March 2020, have announced they are expecting their first child together. One of reality TV’s nicest couples shared the exciting baby news on their joint Instagram account, where they posted a photo of a beaming Michelle holding her small bump beside a clearly thrilled Owen clutching two bags of ice. They also shared a photo of the baby scan, as they revealed the baby is due in early December.

The post, simply captioned ‘so, we’ve got news…’, has already been liked more than 6,000 times, with messages of congratulation flooding in from friends, family and Married at First Sight who have avidly followed their love story from the start. Among those reacting was Adam Aveling, another MAFS success story, who lives in Doncaster with his Tayah Victoria, who had their first child last year.

Michelle, who teaches at a school in Woodseats, and Owen, who works in IT, told The Star they had found out the thrilling news in early April and had told their delighted families when they met up over Easter. But she said it had been hard keeping the news under wraps before letting their friends and many followers know, and she believes many people who know her had already twigged due to the morning sickness she’s been suffering.

MAFS couple thank ‘everyone who’s been so supportive and positive’

Michelle told how she and Owen had been thrilled by the reaction and the many kind messages they have received. She said: “We’d just like to thank everyone who’s been so supportive and positive. They’ve all been so lovely and it's really heartwarming to see the comments from people we’ve never met who have taken such genuine joy in the news.”

The couple have yet to find out the baby's gender but Owen said he wants to know and Michelle joked that he ‘won’t let me not find out’, though they plan to keep it to themselves. Michelle told how her sister had nicknamed the bump ‘Bruce’, after the Finding Nemo character, as she thought the baby looked a bit like a shark in an early scan.

Michelle and Owen told The Star earlier this year how they were looking for a bigger house in which they could start a family together. Michelle moved from Sussex to Owen’s home city of Sheffield in August 2020, just months after they tied the knot, and she has fallen in love with the Steel City, where she has joined Woodseats Musical Theatre Company, with whom she is due to appear in Legally Blonde the Musical at the Montgomery Theatre this July.

In March, the happy couple celebrated their third anniversary with a fany meal at one of Sheffield’s top restaurants, DOMO in trendy Kelham Island, and Michelle has been busy recently planning her sister Katarina's hen party, repaying the favour after Katarina did the same for her.

When The Star last caught up with the couple, their romance was clearly as strong as ever. Asked how they would fare with the new, more dramatic format of Married at First Sight UK, Michelle said: “I can’t imagine a situation where I wouldn’t want to be with Owen forever. I can’t even imagine what that would look like.”

Single Sheffielders looking for love are being urged to sign up for the next season of Married at First Sight.