Three years on from their TV nuptials on Nine’s Married At First Sight, the social experiment’s most successful pairing announced their split on Tuesday night.
Zoe Hendrix, 29, and Alex Garner, 32, ‘wed’ on the inaugural season in 2015, and had planned to say ‘I do’ for real in the coming years after welcoming a beautiful girl.
The proud parents always paraded their genuine love and affection, with fans no doubt left baffled at what went wrong for the seemingly-perfect pair.
What went wrong? There were no signs of trouble in paradise for MAFS golden couple Alex Garner and Zoe Hendrix as they announce shock split and decision to co-parent 17-month-old daughter Harper-Rose
Shock split! Zoe Hendrix, 29, and Alex Garner, 32, ‘wed’ on the inaugural season in 2015, and had planned to say ‘I do’ for real in the coming years after welcoming a beautiful girl in 2016
Mother-of-one Zoe announced the shocking news in a heartfelt Instagram post this week, with her followers notably shaken and upset within the comments.
While some celebrity couples begin to show cracks in their relationship over time, Alex and Zoe appeared stronger-than-ever with every month that passed.
Zoe mentioned in her upload that the couple had been through ‘highs and lows over the years’, and it was with ‘sadness’ that they had decided to end their union.
‘Through the highs and lows’: In 2015, Zoe and Alex were expecting their first child together but were left devastated after losing the baby during a miscarriage in the first trimester
Split: ‘It is with sadness that Alex and I would like to state that we will be separating for now,’ Zoe wrote
‘We can hope that it will help build our love more and will make us really appreciate each other’: the reality TV star couple hoped their devastating miscarriage would bring them closer together and strengthen their love, later becoming parents to beautiful baby girl Harper in November 2016
In 2015, Zoe and Alex were expecting their first child together but were left devastated after losing the baby during the first trimester.
In an emotional A Current Affair interview, the reality TV star couple hoped their devastating miscarriage would bring them closer together and strengthen their love.
Zoe said at the time: ‘As sad as it is, I guess to have such happiness and then such sadness… we can hope that it will help build our love more and will make us really appreciate each other.’
A year later their bond strengthened as they became parents to beautiful baby girl Harper in November 2016.
Their life together: Zoe and Alex live together in Melbourne and were in the process of building a house that they could grow their brood within
Zoe and Alex share a home together in Melbourne and have also marked their love with matching star tattoos – Zoe on the left side of her breast and Alex on his inner forearm.
Alex had gushed about his TV ‘bride’ in many interviews, even confessing to planning a romantic moment where he would pop the question to his lady love.
‘When the time is right, yes, we will definitely have a big wedding,’ Zoe echoed last year in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
‘When the time is right, yes, we will definitely have a big wedding’: Alex had gushed about his TV ‘bride’ in many interviews, even confessing to planning a romantic moment where he would pop the question to his lady love, with Zoe equally excited about becoming his REAL wife
Zoe, who runs her own marketing business, also previously said: ‘We will probably have a wedding down the track, but it’s like we are already married.’
Last year Alex shared another tattoo he had in Amharic – the native language of Ethiopia- in relation to his time with Zoe.
He wrote at the time: ‘It translates to HOPE, as in I hope we stay together because I just tattooed your language on my body.’
‘It translates to HOPE, as in I hope we stay together’: While the couple both having matching star tattoos, Alex also shred another tattoo he had in Amharic last year
‘We are determined to ensure our beautiful daughter Harper-Rose continues to receive the unconditional love and nurturing she deserves from the both of us’: Zoe said in her social media post that she and Alex will continue to amicably co-parent their 17-month-old daughter Harper-Rose
Zoe said in her social media post that she and Alex will continue to amicably co-parent their 17-month-old daughter Harper-Rose.
‘We are determined to ensure our beautiful daughter Harper-Rose continues to receive the unconditional love and nurturing she deserves from the both of us.’
Fifteen hours later, Alex made a statement on his personal page, writing: ‘We are so fortunate and thankful that we were matched together and have shared many great experiences over the last four years. We share the most important thing in both of our lives Harper Rose and will continue to love her and be the best parents possible.’
He insisted: ‘Although Zoe and I have separated our relationship is Civil.’
Both reality stars still display Instagram profile pictures cuddling up to their once-significant other, alluding to an amicable split, as mentioned.
‘We are so fortunate and thankful that we were matched together and have shared many great experiences over the last four years’: Alex broke his silence 15 hours after Zoe’s post, confirming they had separated and their relationship being ‘civil’
Still in his heart… and profile picture: Alex has yet to comment on the split, with both reality stars still displaying Instagram profile pictures cuddling up to their once-significant other (Pictured: Alex’s current Instagram avatar)
Fans took the comment section on the out-of-the-blue announcement, with a common theme emerging of sadness, heartache, denial and hope.
‘So sad to hear’, ‘OMG no!’, ‘please tell me this isn’t really happening!’ and ‘that’s hard and definitely not the news I was expecting from you guys ever’, were just some of the comments left by Zoe’s 95.6k followers.
However, some fans noticed Zoe’s chosen wording of ‘separating for now’ and hoped they would reconcile soon.
‘Thank you to all our followers and friends who have supported us through the highs and lows over the years,’ Zoe ended her post on Tuesday.
Hope: Some fans noticed Zoe’s chosen wording of ‘separating for now’ and hoped they would reconcile soon