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He’s creaming the competition on his second go at MasterChef Australia, but there’s another challenge on the horizon for Brent Draper, whose wife Shonleigh is due to give birth to their second child in November.
“We’re stoked to be giving Alfie a little sibling,” says the former tradie, 32, who admits his four-year-old son was part of the reason why they decided to have another. “We had actually decided in 2022 that we weren’t going to have another baby, which probably had something to do with us living in a 7x3m bus.
“But Alfie kept pestering us about a sibling, so we talked about it, gave it a crack at the start of 2023 and were lucky enough to fall pregnant straight away. We’re feeling really lucky because we know that doesn’t happen for a lot of people. It’s a little MasterChef in the making!”
Brent and Shonleigh won’t find out their baby’s sex as they want “a nice little surprise”, but Alfie has already picked out a name – Minion!
Brent became the first-ever MasterChef contestant to leave voluntarily after quitting the show in 2021 due to his mental health. He felt constantly ill and stressed, couldn’t sleep and was convinced he had liver disease.
The doting dad broke the news to his son Alfie on Instagram.
“I went to the doctors four or five times and even went to emergency,” recalls Brent. “All the doctors told me, ‘We’ve tested everything – you’re fine. You just have severe anxiety,’ and I just couldn’t believe it.”
When asked to return for season 15, Brent said no straight away, thinking the pressure would “trigger him back down a dark path”, but with the support of his family, he changed his mind.
“I want to teach Alfie to put yourself out there and get uncomfortable in life because that’s when you see the best results,” Brent says. “I want to lead by example. He’s always on my mind when I’m cooking.”
MasterChef Australia screens 7.30pm Monday to Thursday & 7pm Sundays on TVNZ 2.
