At a glance…
- Matty and Esther Acton are hosts of the Underaged Grandparents podcast, as they became grandparents at the age of 37!
- Matty Acton is a Brisbane-based radio personality who co-hosts the B105 breakfast show Stav, Abby & Matt.
- They join Tiffany Dunk on The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast to share their journey and how love doesn’t have a timeline.
When Matty Acton met Esther on a Toowoomba dance floor, he was just 18. Esther was 22, a single mum to three-year-old Ethan, and convinced the relationship would never last.
More than two decades later, the couple are married, have two children together, and have added another unexpected title to their lives: grandparents.
Their love story is anything but conventional, and that’s exactly why it’s resonating with so many Australians.
Speaking on The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast, Matty and Esther reflect on the highs, heartbreaks and defining moments that turned an unlikely romance into a family they never imagined.
“We didn’t really ever think it was gonna be anything serious because of the age gap,” Esther says. “He was pursuing radio, I was about to move to Brisbane. I had a three-year-old son… We just really enjoyed each other’s company and had a good laugh. And yeah, here we are 21 years later.”
Listen to the episode:
For Matty, dating a young mum wasn’t the challenge. It was everyone else’s opinions.
“The people who thought about it the most were other people outside of the relationship,” he says. “Straight away they would go, ‘Do you wanna do that? Is that the right thing?’… When you’re young, stupidly, other people’s opinions mattered to you more than they really should.”
Those outside pressures contributed to several painful break-ups before the couple finally found their way back to each other. Their longest separation came after Matty’s father died from lung cancer – a loss that ultimately helped him realise what he stood to lose.
“I just couldn’t see a life where I didn’t have Esther and I was gonna be happy,” he says. “I didn’t wanna ever lose that.”
One of the most emotional moments in the episode comes as Matty recalls the advice his father gave him shortly before he passed away.
“I can remember him saying to me, ‘Don’t be afraid to love them,'” Matty shares. “That was one thing that’s always stuck with me.”
That advice shaped not only his relationship with Esther but also with Ethan, whom he says he loved “from the minute I saw him”. Years later, after a heartfelt conversation, Ethan made the decision to call Matty “Dad”.
“I said, ‘If you want to call me Dad, you can. If you want to keep calling me Matt, you can do that as well,'” Matty recalls. “I wanted it to be what felt natural to him.”
For Esther, hearing it for the first time marked a turning point.
“It felt like a sense of completion… another layer to, okay, this is what we’re building here.”
The couple later welcomed son Xander and daughter Eden, before life surprised them again when Ethan married young and started a family of his own.
Becoming grandparents before Matty turned 40 wasn’t something either of them expected.
“I was shocked,” Esther admits. “Then I just sort of went, ‘I’ve got to completely get over myself. This is the greatest thing.'”
For Matty, it became a moment of reflection.
“I think that’s what’s cool about being a grandparent at our age,” he says. “It just proves life does not follow any sort of script or plan. You just have to roll with what happens.”
Filled with humour, honesty and moving reflections on blended families, grief, parenting and embracing life’s unexpected turns, Matty and Esther’s conversation is a reminder that the best love stories rarely follow the timeline we imagined.
To hear the full conversation – including the story behind Ethan first calling Matty “Dad”, Matty’s unforgettable proposal, and how the couple are embracing life as “underage grandparents” – listen to or watch the latest episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories.
Watch the episode:
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