John Aiken has once again paid tribute to his former Married At First Sight colleague Dr Trisha Stratford, posting a remembrance on Instagram two years after her death.
Aiken, who worked alongside Stratford for seven seasons of the Australian reality series, shared several photographs on Tuesday, including one of the pair courtside at the Australian Open and another of Stratford smiling on a coastal walk. In his post he wrote simply: "Remembering Dr Trisha today." The post follows an earlier commemorative reel Aiken shared on the first anniversary of Stratford’s death.
Stratford, a clinical neuropsychotherapist who was 72 when she died on Sept. 19, 2023, served as part of the MAFS experts’ panel for seven seasons before stepping back from the program. Aiken, 54, announced her death at the time on Instagram, saying he was "heartbroken and devastated" and thanking her for the memories they shared on the show.
In interviews after the announcement, Aiken described Stratford as an "amazing woman" and a "voice of reason" on set. When questioned about the cause of death, he said he wished to respect Stratford's and her family's privacy and declined to provide details.
Channel 9 released a statement at the time expressing sorrow over her passing and extending condolences to her family. Stratford's tenure on Married At First Sight was notable for several signature moments, including what became known as her "pheromone test" and her direct questioning about participants' intimacy during experiments on the series.
Before her television role, Stratford held an extensive and varied career. She was New Zealand's first sports journalist, worked as a war correspondent, and later retrained as a clinical neuropsychotherapist. She balanced a high-pressure professional life with raising three daughters as a single mother, according to accounts of her career.
Stratford announced in 2020 that she was stepping back from the show to focus on writing, research and her clinical work. In early 2021 she publicly criticized aspects of the series, telling Woman’s Day New Zealand that by the end of her involvement she felt "sick" and that she could not "compromise my professional and personal standards" because she believed some participants should not have been included.
Aiken’s recent Instagram tribute included archival images from their time on the experts' couch and snapshots with fellow MAFS panel member Mel Schilling, as well as a close selfie of the two. The continued public remembrances reflect Stratford’s impact on colleagues and audiences during and after her television career.
Her death prompted statements of sympathy from former colleagues and the network, and Aiken’s decision to mark the second anniversary underscores the ongoing regard in which she is held by those who worked with her. Both Aiken and Channel 9 have maintained that details surrounding Stratford's passing remain private out of respect for her and her family.