He's A Survivor! Our Baby Gave Us Such A Fright

TV’s Matt got a scary call from his wife

- Ashleigh McEnaney

It was the day that Matt Chisholm and his wife Ellen had been waiting for – they’d finally reached the all-important 12-week mark in their second pregnancy and were ready to share the happy news. In fact, Survivor New Zealand host Matt even had big plans to make the announcement on national TV.

“I was rehearsing to fill in on Seven Sharp with Toni Street when we got to talking about our kids,” tells the 41-year-old broadcaster. “Toni was saying how her little girl was all grown up and heading off to school, and it just felt like the perfect time to tell her that Elle and I were expecting another baby. She was so excited for us and said, ‘Let’s announce it on air!’”

But in a cruel twist of fate, Matt finished rehearsals and picked up his phone to discover his pregnant wife had been rushed to hospital. “I’d missed a few calls and texts from Elle, and she was hysterical. ‘I’m bleeding,’ one said. Imagine opening up your phone to that.”

While her hubby of two years was tied up at work, Ellen was undergoing a myriad of tests at North Shore Hospital.

“I was bracing myself for the worst, but the doctors told me I wasn’t miscarrying, at least not yet,” says the 33-year-old, who had suffered a tear in her placenta. “I was told everything is fine right now, but if it gets worse, then the lifeline to the baby is gone. They didn’t have a scanner, which could detect the heartbeat for a baby at only 12 weeks, so we had to go home that night not really knowing what was going on.