Kiwi YouTube sensations 'INSIDE OUR FORBIDDEN ROMANCE'

They're sharing their love with the world, but Abbey and Money have also had their fair share of family dramas

- Cloe Willetts

When Kiwi internet sensations Abbey and Money Singh welcomed their firstborn two years ago, an adorable blue-eyed boy named Noah, happy images were splashed across Instagram and their YouTube channel, which has almost 1.5 million subscribers worldwide.

But behind the scenes, the popular Auckland couple, who have defied the odds to be together, were struggling. Money, 28, was torn between the needs of his Scottish-born wife Abbey and his Indian mother Pam, who had different ideas about how Noah should spend his first weeks. Meanwhile, Abbey was suffering from postnatal depression.

"It was the worst time in my life," recalls the 25-year-old mum, speaking to Woman's Day after the release of the couple's first book, The Modern Singhs: The True Story Of A Marriage Of Two Cultures. "It was an emotional rollercoaster because I had an emergency Caesarean after wanting to have a natural birth, then Noah had feeding issues, and was dehydrated and losing weight. There was also a lot of confusion around what would happen when Noah was born, and Money and I got into the biggest argument we'd ever had."

In Punjabi families, there's a ritual new mothers often follow where they stay at their parents' home for 40 days after giving birth. For the first 13 of those, she and the newborn are left alone in a dimmed bedroom to recover and bond.