You read about Married at First Sight Australia contestant Patrick Miller’s struggles with his mental health in Woman’s Day, plus his bond with Kiwi contestants Gareth Noble and Wayne McIntosh, but one thing the Aussie star has never opened up about is his first marriage… until now.
Before appearing on MAFS, the Melbourne furniture importer, 36, was married to a friend of one of his AFL footie mates, but the union ended after just 10 months when his bride refused to let Patrick’s sick father move in with them. He immediately called it quits and their pair haven’t spoken since.
“My first marriage was when I was 26, to a girl I met when I was 23 years old,” he says, speaking exclusively to Now To Love. “She was from a Vietnamese family from a sheltered upbringing.”
Patrick’s on-screen marriage to Charlene Perera sadly didn’t last the distance either.
Patrick says their marriage was “my idea of an ideal relationship”, but he was also taking care of his elderly father. He explains, “My old man was 50 when he had me. There was a bit of an age gap between my mother and father, and my parents split when I was 10. Since then, the responsibilities I had were significant compared to kids of my age. My dad was basically an extension of me, a huge part of me. I had to look after him. He had health issues.
“My wife and I put a lot of money down on a house and started building it, but then she told me, ‘I can’t live with your dad.’ I couldn’t bear to see my dad getting into taxis with oxygen tanks, trying to find his own accommodation – he taught me everything I knew.
“When it came to seeing him off to a nursing home, I thought, ‘No, I’m not doing this.’ I asked her again and she still said she didn’t want my dad living with us, so I ended it. I got the marriage annulled. That was the last time I spoke to her. That was it.”
Patrick admits the situation was “very dramatic”, but he has no regrets following his father’s death at age 84 in 2014. “I made the right decision for myself and my dad. If I’d told my old man to go to a nursing home, I’d be regretting it every day from when he passed.”
Meanwhile, Patrick’s ex-wife got remarried just over a month ago. “I couldn’t be happier for her,” the reality star says.
