MARRIED At First Sight’s Marilyse Corrigan has revealed she is donating her kidney to save her ex’s life.
The 37-year-old is taking part in a kidney donation scheme on Tuesday, where her organ will go to a woman she has never met, and in exchange Shaun will receive a new kidney that matches his.
The reality star’s ex suffers from polycystic kidney disease, an inherited disorder which causes small fluid-filled sacs, or cysts, to develop in the kidneys that leads to them enlarging and losing function over time.
Due to his condition, Shaun was told he would need dialysis and a donor transplant in 2019.
The E4 star, who shares sons Josh, 13, and Callum, 15, with Shaun, said she was motivated to take part in the scheme after seeing her children get so upset over their father’s diagnosis.
She told OK! magazine: “They were very upset because they don’t understand it. And we had to explain to them what it meant and they had to witness, when they were staying with their dad and he’d be on the [dialysis] machine every night.”
Marilyse explained that she decided to donate her kidney after none of Shaun’s family were able to due to various health conditions and he had been on a very competitive donor waiting list.
The TV star said she surprised her ex with a letter which detailed her donor scheme plans one day when visiting their boys and was moved to tears by the gesture.
Marilyse then revealed that she’s set to go under the knife in a matter of days after the process was initially delayed for nearly two years due to the pandemic.
At the height of the pandemic, all non-emergency surgeries were cancelled.
She shared: “I signed all the paperwork and Covid hit. Shaun couldn’t have the kids because he had to isolate – he was a high risk patient. So I had the kids for a year while he did a few window visits to say hi to them.
“So for me, this is my kids needing the kidney because I needed it for their dad, so that’s how I look at it. And because my kids are so important and valuable to me then it makes the whole situation right.”
Marilyse will be in hospital for only one night, but joked that she “won’t be able to lift anything other than a cup of tea”.
While she recovers, Shaun will be treated with medication in hospital for seven days due to the risk of his body rejecting his new kidney.
AT FIRST SIGHT
Fans of Married At First Sight UK met the Yorkshire beauty on this year’s explosive installment when she wed military man Franky Spencer, 47.
Although the pair were happily loved up at the reunion, the pair eventually split after four months together.
Last month, Marilyse told us the real reason behind their split, admitting their relationship “went a bit dry” and they became “more like friends” than lovers.
The mum-of-two experienced the highs and lows of married life during a truly explosive season of MAFS that saw a cheating scandal, a recoupling and fights galore.
At the end of the show, Marilyse, 37, and Franky, 47, renewed their vows and seemed more loved up than ever during the reunion, which aired on Monday.
Franky had previously declared he loved his wife and on one clip in front of the relationship experts, Marilyse gushed: “I’m just happy.”
But all wasn’t meant to be for the “true Yorkshire lass” and her Dubai-dwelling beau, calling it quits in September.
‘Franky’s back in Dubai’
After the show, personal trainer Franky moved to Beverly, Yorks, while he looked for work in Leeds and planned his big move back from Dubai.
During that time, Marilyse’s children, aged 13 and 16, “really got on with Franky” and would often play games against one another on their phones.
Now Franky is back in Dubai but Marilyse said they still leave voice notes for one another and she sends him cute pictures of her dogs.
