In a new episode of the podcast Love Stories, former MasterChef Australia contestants Sarah Todd and Declan Clearly revealed the dangerous circumstances surrounding the birth of their identical twin babies, Claudia and Charlotte.
Sarah recalls the pregnancy being a tough one from the beginning, with morning sickness and physical pain being with her throughout the journey.
At her 34-week scan, things went from bad to worse as her doctors diagnosed her with preclampsia — a dangerous pregnancy complication involving high blood pressure and a shortage of platelets. After her blood pressure and platelet count wouldn’t budge, the decision was made to put Sarah under general anaesthetic so that a c-section could be performed.
“Sarah goes under and they’re cutting her open and both girls come out – and the girls were still,” he recalled. “And it was like, God, I’ve got like two dead babies here and mum’s knocked unconscious. And I can’t say anything. I can’t ask any questions because there’s 18 people there. They’re going crazy – chucking plastic bags on the girls and shaking the s**t out of them.”
When the twins were in the clear, Sarah’s condition took a turn for the worse, as she began to have seizures — a rare complication of preclampsia patients — to which Sarah squeezed Declan’s hand and said “Dec, please make it stop.”
“It was just so scary, not feeling stable or in control,” Sarah recalls in the podcast. “I can handle pain, but I couldn’t handle this. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”
Sarah says that while she’s still recovering from the preeclampsia, she gushed about her twins, calling them “unbelievably beautiful.”
Sarah and Declan’s whirlwind MasterChef romance
Declan and Sarah met while they were filming the 2025 season of MasterChef Australia.
In a post-elimination interview with Chattr, Sarah said that having Declan by her side helped push her to do her best.
“I was devastated seeing Declan getting eliminated,” she said. “He’s so talented and passionate about food, and has a lot of creativity in the kitchen.”
“Selfishly, I was devastated for myself as well, having that joy in the kitchen, and to be able to walk out after a cook and [have him]. We were just, like, doing our workouts and just having a lot of fun outside of the kitchen.”
Sarah and Declan have had a whirlwind romance — they started dating after MasterChef wrapped, and moved in together later that year.
In a recent interview, MasterChef Australia judge Poh Ling Yeow revealed that having children was one of Declan’s greatest wishes. “[Fatherhood] is something that he talks about being one of his life missions, and for it to be realised so quickly…. it’s just so amazing that between last season and this season, one of his life dreams has come true with the woman of his dreams.”
MasterChef Australia airs Sunday 7pm and Monday and Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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