Confronted

Eighteen months after losing Mackenzie, Matt and Lauren return to the hospital.

They’re pregnant again - carrying hope, fear, and the memory of what happened before.

The final episode follows the tense hours leading up to the birth, and the moment when everything hangs in the balance.

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Can you risk loving another child after losing one?

Matt and Lauren begin the uncertain journey of IVF, confronting fear, hope, and the possibility of opening themselves up to heartbreak again.

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Sometimes the only way forward is to leave everything behind.

Matt and Lauren travel to Europe hoping distance might help them breathe again.

But grief has a way of following you - even to the other side of the world.

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Grief doesn’t always look the way people expect.

For Matt, the months after Mackenzie’s death spiral into anxiety, therapy sessions, and a drink-driving charge that forces him to confront parts of himself he’d been avoiding for years.

Sometimes the hardest moments are the ones that force you to face yourself.

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Is it possible to laugh again without betraying your grief?

Less than two weeks after Mackenzie’s death, Matt finds himself filming a survival show teaser in the Marlborough Sounds with comedian Tom Sainsbury.

It’s surreal. It’s uncomfortable. And somehow… it’s also the first time he laughs again.

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What do you do with love when there’s no one left to give it to?

After the hospital, Matt and Lauren bring Mackenzie home and spend a week doing things no new parents expect to do - taking her to the beach, playing her music, and letting her experience the places and people who loved her.

Eventually the world begins moving again.

The question is whether they’re ready to move with it.

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Before the hospital. Before Mackenzie. Before everything changed.

Matt looks back at the relationships, mistakes, and chaotic moments that shaped the person he was before becoming a father.

At the time it felt like randomness. Looking back, it almost feels like preparation.

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The moment that was meant to be the happiest day of their lives becomes something else entirely.

Matt and Lauren arrive at the hospital expecting to meet their daughter, Mackenzie. Instead, they receive the news that will change everything.

Through raw recordings and present-day reflection, Matt revisits the day his world shattered - and the question that followed:

How do you survive the moment everything falls apart?

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Confronted is an eight-episode narrative podcast that begins with the stillbirth of Matt Earle and Lauren’s daughter, Mackenzie, and follows the 18 months that come after - using real recordings captured in the moment.

Blending past and present, Matt and his best friend Josh revisit past relationships, therapy, travel, and the turning points that shaped that time - including the strange moments where you somehow find yourself laughing when you feel like you shouldn’t.

Told from a male perspective, Confronted explores how people respond when life doesn’t go to plan - and how they find a way forward.

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