The whole nation saw her attempt, and fail, to find love on season 12 of Married At First Sight, and two years on, Katie Johnston is still single and coming to terms with the realisation she may never have the traditional family she hoped for.
But rather than giving into her personal pain, the 39-year-old Queenslander has “channelled the love I still had into something bigger than myself” – and ‘adopted’ children in need!
“MAFS broke my trust in relationships in a lot of ways. I walked away feeling emotionally unsafe and disconnected from the idea of love in the traditional sense,” Katie tells Woman’s Day of her toxic experience with groom Tim Gromie, yet another heartbreak in a string of bad relationship experiences throughout her life.
“I always imagined expressing my maternal side within a family unit of my own. When that path no longer felt emotionally safe for me, I had to find another way to give the love I still carry so deeply.”
That maternal longing and search for meaning led Katie to the Home of Good Children Charity in Uganda, an orphanage dedicated to caring for children in desperate need of support. In December, the Aussie reality star ‘adopted’ 38 children whose lives have been tainted by poverty, family loss and homelessness.
It’s another example of positivity that has unexpectedly come from Katie’s mostly traumatic time on MAFS.
“People see influencing as superficial sometimes, but the irony is that the platform I gained through MAFS – something that caused me so much pain – is now the very thing helping me change these children’s lives,” she says.
“Because of this platform, I’ve now bought land for a future orphanage, put every child through school for the year for the first time ever, and created stability where there once was survival mode. That means everything to me. And it’s made it worth the pain.”
Not content to simply watch the children’s progress from the other side of the world, Katie’s now planning to travel to Uganda to meet the kids – and hopefully bring them the essential technology they need to better their education for their future.
She’s put the call-out for anyone eager to help, and who may have an old iPhone, iPad or laptop lying around that could be put to good use. The goal is to take over 10 of each device, and Katie insists, “These children are incredibly resilient and eager to learn.”
Katie, who turns 40 in August, admits being able to accept that her grand plan for life may not happen has been strangely liberating, and actually opened up doors she never would have walked through otherwise.
“I may not have become a mother in the way I once imagined, but these children have awakened that part of me anyway,” she says. “And in many ways, building something meaningful from the wreckage of what nearly broke me has been the most empowering thing I’ve ever done.”
