Martha Kalifatidis had no idea what her mum was going through during MAFS.

Martha Kalifatidis made her mark on Australian television with her unforgettable debut on Married At First Sight in 2019.

Quickly gaining attention for her penchant for wine-spilling and iconic one-liners, Martha was paired with Michael Brunelli, and their relationship became one of the most enduring partnerships on the show.

Martha and Michael have since gotten engaged and welcomed their first child, Lucius, in 2023.

Watch Martha share advice with her five-year-old self. Post continues after video.

As the years between MAFS and today have stretched on, Martha's popularity has only grown, arguably because of how much she shares of her chaotic family life on Instagram — especially her mum, Big Brother star, Mary.

Along with Michael, the mother-daughter duo is active online, sharing their hilarious family life, insights and lifestyle content with their growing fanbase.

On a recent episode of the I Never Told You This podcast series, Martha and Mary sat down to discuss something they've never shared with each other.

Listen to the episode. Post continues after podcast.

"I never told you this," Mary began.

"When you went on reality TV, all these comments would come in on social media. It actually affected me, but I didn't want to show you that it was affecting me."

It got so bad that Mary admitted she would be unable to sleep at night. "I'd be staying up till three or four in the morning and I didn't realise how toxic social media can be. I didn't know as a parent how I could comfort you," Mary said.

Martha sympathised with Mary, as she could see how hard it would have been watching her daughter being torn to shreds online just for starring in Australia's biggest reality show.

"I can totally understand how that would have affected you," Martha said. "With the trolls on the internet, they think they know me, but you really know me, and so you were reading things that weren't true, and then that would be just an endless cycle."

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Mary shared that her health went on a downward spiral during this time. "I didn't want to burden you: I've got anxiety, I can't sleep, I had shortness of breath…"

At this point, Martha was left audibly shaken. "No Mum, don't," she said, before admitting she had an inkling her mum wasn't coping at this time.

"You did start acting really strange. I know you were staying up really late looking at comments, and I remember just being so like, 'Don't worry about it, man, like it's fine.'

"But I think at the time I didn't want to show you it was affecting me, so I would just say 'It doesn't matter', but really I would be in my room staying up reading the comments as well."

Martha shared that the family had a history of hiding some of their mental health struggles. "I have anxiety myself. I don't even know what to do with it. Do you know how to deal with it? I feel like we don't really know how to deal with it — we just move on with the day and just keep the day going," she said.

Mary regretted not being more open about these topics.

"Thinking back, I should have just been more open and told you, 'It's normal to feel this way because I'm feeling this way'," Mary said.

"That's very much what our family does — we're not very good at revealing, which is strange because we're so open… we've been brought up to be quite hard... it doesn't matter how you're feeling, soldier on," Martha replied.

Mary said that her upbringing could have impacted how she parented her own kids.

"When I was growing up, our parents were very strict. They never showed emotion," she said.

Looking back on her time dealing with MAFS trolling, Martha said she was sad her mum didn't share her struggles.

"I kind of feel a bit sad for you in a way that you kind of dealt with that on your own," Martha said.

"That's what parents do," Mary replied. "They try to protect their kids as much as they can."

Feature image: Instagram/@marthaa__k.