Who Is Tara Pavlovic's Husband? Meet Nick Shepherdson

Tara Pavlovic married her childhood friend Nick Shepherdson on September 25, 2020, at Sol Gardens in Currumbin Valley, Queensland — and yes, they served McDonald’s to their guests. The couple, who spent a decade as friends before falling in love, now share two children and a life that looks nothing like the dramatic reality TV storylines that first made Tara a household name in Australia.

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Who Is Nick Shepherdson?

Nick Shepherdson is Tara Pavlovic’s husband, known primarily for his decade-long friendship with the reality TV star that quietly turned into something more. He goes by @shepaa on Instagram, where he occasionally appears alongside Tara and their children, though he keeps a notably lower profile than his wife.

Unlike most celebrity spouses who emerge from the same entertainment world, Nick had no history on screen before Tara. He built his life outside the spotlight, and he’s kept it that way. Tara, in interviews, has described him as someone with a demanding work schedule, and the couple has spoken openly about the challenge of balancing his professional commitments with the demands of young parenthood.

According to Tara, Nick harbors ambitions for a large family — he reportedly wants four children — though she has laughed off the idea, saying she’s not sure he fully understands what “five days a week at home with babies is like.” That kind of easy, candid dynamic runs through every public comment she’s made about their relationship.

How Tara Pavlovic Met Nick Shepherdson

Tara and Nick were friends for ten years before they started dating in August 2018. The transition from friendship to romance is something Tara has spoken about with visible warmth — it wasn’t a sudden realization, more a slow understanding that the person who already knew her best was the one she wanted beside her.

The timing matters here. Tara had just come off a very public relationship with Sam Cochrane on Bachelor in Paradise Australia, a televised engagement that ended in a well-documented split. Nick was already in her life during all of it — as a friend, not a suitor. When she eventually started seeing him differently in mid-2018, it was the opposite of a reality TV romance: no cameras, no producers, no audience tracking their every moment.

The couple announced their engagement in September 2019, with Tara posting a photo to Instagram that quickly circulated through Australian entertainment media. She had been a familiar face since Season 5 of The Bachelor Australia in 2017, where she became one of the show’s most beloved contestants. The engagement announcement felt, to many fans, like the right ending to a story that had taken a few wrong turns.

By that point, Tara and Nick had been friends long enough that his family felt like her family, and vice versa. The foundation of the relationship wasn’t chemistry discovered on a first date, it was years of already knowing each other’s defaults, moods, and contradictions.

Relationship Timeline: From Friendship to Family

Year	Milestone
~2008	Tara and Nick first meet, begin decade-long friendship
August 2018	Begin dating officially
September 2019	Engagement announced via Instagram
September 25, 2020	Wedding at Sol Gardens, Currumbin Valley, Queensland
May 2021	First child Paddy born
January 9, 2022	Second child Edi-Rae born

That wedding date is worth a small footnote: COVID-19 restrictions forced the couple to postpone their original plans. The ceremony they eventually held on September 25, 2020, was intimate by design and necessity. What made it memorable, though, was a catering decision that became Australian celebrity news in its own right.

relationship timeline from friendship to family — From a decade of friendship to marriage and two children: the Pavlovic-Shepherdson relationship has its own quiet timeline.

The Wedding Day Details

Tara and Nick married at Sol Gardens in Currumbin Valley, Queensland, a garden venue in the Gold Coast hinterland known for its lush subtropical setting. The ceremony was intimate, shaped partly by the pandemic restrictions that had forced them to scale back their original plans. Close family and friends made up the guest list.

The reception is what most people remember. In a move that was either deeply practical or brilliantly tongue-in-cheek depending on how you look at it, Tara and Nick served McDonald’s to their guests. Pedestrian TV covered the story immediately, along with News.com.au and various Australian entertainment outlets, framing it as a feel-good human interest piece. Tara has never seemed remotely apologetic about the choice, if anything, it fits the version of herself she’s always presented publicly. Unpretentious, direct, a little irreverent.

Tara later shared the official wedding video on Instagram, giving fans a glimpse of the day they’d been waiting to see since the engagement announcement a year earlier. The footage showed a relaxed, joyful celebration with none of the formality that tends to come with celebrity weddings.

The couple had postponed their original wedding plans due to COVID-19 restrictions, a frustration shared by thousands of Australian couples in 2020, though few got the kind of press coverage that came with Tara’s name attached to it.

Family Life and Their Two Children

Paddy was born in May 2021, roughly eight months after the wedding. Tara was 31 at the time of the WHO magazine profile published around September 2021, when she described herself as having felt “made to be a mother” from the first days of Paddy’s life, even on the nights when the lack of sleep left her, as she put it, “a nervous wreck” and “a rollercoaster of emotions.”

Nick’s role in those early months came with a particular frustration he apparently expressed openly: he wanted to be more involved in feeding Paddy but couldn’t, given that Tara was breastfeeding. She relayed his reaction with clear amusement, “I wish I had boobs, that would be handy,” she quoted him saying. Pumping and bottle feeding became their workaround, giving Nick and Paddy bonding time that he clearly wanted.

Their second child, a daughter named Edi-Rae, arrived on January 9, 2022. The name drew immediate attention, Daily Mail Australia described it as “VERY unique,” which is probably accurate for the Australian celebrity parenting circuit. In late 2022, Tara revealed that Edi-Rae had been hospitalized with a serious health condition, sharing the news publicly in a moment of candor that felt consistent with how she’s always handled difficult news: honestly, without filtering it through a PR lens.

Both children appear on Tara’s social media with some regularity, though she’s maintained a visible instinct to protect their lives from full public exposure.

From Sam Cochrane to Nick: The Context That Matters

Tara’s previous high-profile relationship was with Sam Cochrane, who proposed to her on Bachelor in Paradise Australia. That engagement didn’t last, the two announced their split after the show aired, and the breakup played out in front of an audience that had invested in the relationship.

Nick is the inverse of that experience in almost every way. He wasn’t chosen through a televised format. He wasn’t meeting her for the first time on camera. He had watched her navigate the Bachelor universe from the outside, as a friend, without having a stake in how the story ended. When their relationship shifted in 2018, it came without any of the structural pressures that come with reality TV romance, no finales, no producer-shaped narrative arcs, no rose ceremonies.

Tara has been measured in what she’s said about Sam publicly, and that restraint is telling. What she has made clear is that her relationship with Nick feels different in kind, not just degree, built on something that predated any public version of herself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Tara Pavlovic’s husband?

Tara Pavlovic’s husband is Nick Shepherdson, a private individual she knew as a friend for approximately ten years before they began dating in August 2018. They married on September 25, 2020, at Sol Gardens in Currumbin Valley, Queensland.

When did Tara Pavlovic get married?

Tara Pavlovic married Nick Shepherdson on September 25, 2020. The wedding was held at Sol Gardens, a garden venue in Currumbin Valley in Queensland’s Gold Coast hinterland. The couple had originally planned a larger celebration but scaled back due to COVID-19 restrictions.

How did Tara Pavlovic meet Nick Shepherdson?

Tara and Nick met approximately ten years before they started dating, making them friends long before they became a couple. They began their romantic relationship in August 2018, following Tara’s split from Sam Cochrane, whom she had been briefly engaged to on Bachelor in Paradise Australia.

How many children does Tara Pavlovic have?

Tara Pavlovic and Nick Shepherdson have two children together: a son named Paddy, born in May 2021, and a daughter named Edi-Rae, born on January 9, 2022. Edi-Rae was hospitalized with a serious condition in late 2022, which Tara disclosed publicly.

What is Nick Shepherdson’s Instagram handle?

Nick Shepherdson’s Instagram handle is @shepaa. He maintains a relatively private profile compared to his wife and makes occasional appearances on Tara’s own Instagram account (@tarapavlovic).

Where did Tara Pavlovic have her wedding?

Tara Pavlovic and Nick Shepherdson were married at Sol Gardens in Currumbin Valley, Queensland, on September 25, 2020. The reception famously included McDonald’s food served to guests, a detail that made news across Australian entertainment media.

Is Tara Pavlovic still married to Nick Shepherdson?

Yes, as of 2025, Tara Pavlovic remains married to Nick Shepherdson. The couple has been together since 2018, married since 2020, and share two children, Paddy and Edi-Rae. Tara continues to document aspects of their family life on Instagram.

What does Nick Shepherdson do for work?

Nick Shepherdson’s specific career has not been publicly disclosed in detail. Tara has mentioned in interviews that he has a “hectic work schedule,” and she has joked about whether having four children, as Nick reportedly wants, would be “feasible due to his hectic work schedule.” No specific profession has been confirmed in published reporting.

A Love Story That Didn’t Need an Audience

There’s something that sets the Tara Pavlovic and Nick Shepherdson story apart from the reality TV romances that defined the early part of Tara’s public life: it required no audience to exist. The friendship that preceded the relationship, the private ceremony in the Queensland hinterland, the McDonald’s guests, none of it needed cameras to be real.

That might be why it’s lasted where other televised matches haven’t. Ten years of friendship isn’t something you manufacture on a tropical island in six weeks. It just accumulates, quietly, until one day in August 2018 it becomes something else entirely.