For the past few years, the summer holidays have been a whirlwind for Kiwi media star and mum of three Matilda Green. The festive season is usually filled with travel up and down the country, catching up with friends and cramming as much into the break as possible. It’s fun and full, but rarely relaxing.
This year, though, things look very different. After a huge 2025, Matilda and her husband Art, 37, have made a conscious decision to slow down. Christmas was a low-key celebration at home with their three kids, Milo, six, Autumn, four, and Penelope, two, and the weeks ahead are set to be blissfully quiet, with very little on the agenda.
“It’s the first time ever that we’ve got almost nothing planned and I’m so excited,” says Matilda, 35.
“Usually we pack so much into this time of year, but with three kids in tow, we realised we were making it more stressful and tiring than it needed to be.”
With a new home in Warkworth, just north of Auckland, to enjoy and beautiful beaches a short drive away, there is plenty to keep them occupied. But simply having the time and space to reconnect as a family is something Matilda has been hanging out for.
Tag-teaming through a busy year
“With three kids and work, Art and I tag-teamed a lot this year,” says Matilda, who did a six-month radio stint on The Hits, alongside host Matty McLean, covering PJ Harding’s maternity leave.
“It meant we’ve been ships in the night a bit, so weekends and holidays have become really sacred because it’s the only time we’re all together with no other demands on us. It feels super-important to make the most of it.”
From airwaves to advocacy
Matilda is speaking to Woman’s Day just before Christmas, calling from her car after flying in from Wellington. She has just presented a petition to the Government alongside fellow campaigners from B416, a group of high-profile Kiwis calling for a social-media age limit of 16. While she never set out to be an activist, joining the movement was a no-brainer.
“It’s something I’ve been worried about for a long time,” says Matilda.
“You drive past a bus stop in the morning and every single kid is staring down at their phones. When I was young, we’d be talking, laughing and yahooing. It feels like a fundamental shift and I find it really sad.”
Exploring the impact of screens
That concern led Matilda to team up with paediatrician Dr Maneesh Deva for the 10-part podcast One Young Mind, which explores why it’s so hard for young people to put down their phones and the rising mental-health challenges linked to online life. She admits the project has been confronting.
“It’s been much heavier than I ever imagined,” she says.
“The more I learn, the more grim it feels. I genuinely had no idea just how bad things were for children on social media and how the companies that run them have no interest in protecting them.”
Inside the podcast
The podcast features interviews with experts, including former Meta engineer Arturo Béjar, who exposes how harmful algorithms target young users, and dietitian Rachael Wilson, who reveals how platforms like Instagram deliberately target those most vulnerable to eating disorders. With hundreds of thousands of followers herself, Matilda says the project has forced her to reflect deeply on her own relationship with social media.
“We’re grappling with this moral dilemma because we’re speaking about the harms of social media on social media,” she says.
“But the reality is, this is a societal problem and we do the best with what we have, right? At the moment, the most efficient way to amplify that message is on social media. But we’re not talking to children – we’re talking to other adults and that’s the key point. Children are the most at risk here.”
Balancing work & family
While she has considered turning her back on social-media apps, Matilda’s work as a content creator and her online profile allow her to be at home for her kids – something she values deeply. Instead, she’s advocating for stronger protections and says the issue is far too big for parents to tackle alone.
“These apps are addictive even for us as adults with our fully developed brains. To expect kids to manage that is unrealistic and unfair. It actually makes me angry that we put that burden on them.”
Practising what they preach
At home, Matilda and Art – who met 10 years ago on reality TV show The Bachelor NZ − try to practise what they preach. Since moving into their new house several months ago, they haven’t plugged in the TV and the kids don’t have iPads. Matilda has bought an old-school alarm clock so her phone stays out of the bedroom. Movie nights happen occasionally via a projector, but entertainment is mostly old-fashioned play.
Life with three kids
“Milo loves Lego, Autumn is our little mother hen with her dolls and Penny just potters between them,” says Matilda, whose third child has added a wonderful new dynamic to the family.
“She’s so cute and we all just love her so much. She’s bossy, though! She tells us where to sit at the dinner table every night and we all say, ‘OK!’”
Choosing the hard path
Matilda admits life with three kids would at times be easier with screens, but she’s staying firm.
“Yes, sometimes it’s chaos. I’ll have a baby clinging to my leg, the other two might be fighting and tearing each other apart, and I’m trying to cook pasta that no one will probably eat. But I really believe you choose either hard now or hard later and the harder choice is often the one worth making.”
The joy of a device-free home
The upside of a device-free home, she says, is seeing her children’s creativity flourish.
“They come up with the funniest, most imaginative games and I love that they have space to do that.”
This summer, phones will be out of sight as Matilda and Art soak up the joy of time together. Whether it’s watching their kids play at home or splashing in the sea, Matilda is endlessly grateful
for her happy, healthy whānau.
Those moments with “just the five of us” are her happiest. “If we’re all in the car on a Saturday morning heading off to do something fun, I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m in heaven!’ No one’s working, we’re all together and it’s just the best.”
