Aussie influencer Matty J hits backs as his Father of the Year win divides critics

Matthew ‘Matty J’ Johnson has been named 2026 Australian Father of the Year, but not everyone is happy with his latest achievement.

Johnson received the award over the weekend from The Fathering Project, a national community organisation that aims to improve kids’ lives and futures by equipping fathers to be positively engaged, connected, and confident.

What should have been a happy moment turned sour when Johnson was sent a video from Amber Paul, better known as Influencer Updates AU online, slamming his win.

“I hate it,” she said, calling the award “so random” and questioning what the criteria were.

“I think that Matty J is obviously a very famous person and whoever is running this award, great marketing to give it to Matty J.”

Paul added a disclaimer that she was sure Johnson was a great dad, but she didn’t understand the award.

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Johnson took to Instagram on Wednesday with an emotional video of his own.

“I’ll be honest, that made me a little bit sad when I watched that video,” he confessed.

“And I don’t want to try and sit here and justify why I deserve to win that award, I just want to make you aware of some of the things that I’ve done in the space of parenting that you might not know about.”

Johnson went on to list his long-standing ambassador roles for the Australian Childhood Foundation, the Starlight Foundation, and Movember.

His work with the charities has been around supporting kids in the foster care system, seriously ill children in hospitals across the country, and raising awareness of men’s health issues

“In addition to that, we [Johnson and Ash Wicks] have had a podcast now, Two Doting Dads for over three years [with] 260 episodes, over 100,000 listeners every single month,” he said.

“More than anything, we just try and normalise the everyday struggles that parents are facing.

“But more importantly, we now bring in experts to educate us and the listeners, mums and dads, about really important topics: child safety and body autonomy, miscarriage, sobriety, and postnatal depression.”

Johnson also mentioned his huge social media following, explaining that he uses his platform to push for fathers to be more involved, present, and emotionally available.

“Does that mean that I should be Father of the Year? Who knows?” he concluded.

“But I hope that you can see I’ve done just something, one little thing, that might make me be considered for the award.”

Wife Laura Byrne commented “Well bloody said” under the clip.

There’s no denying Johnson is a passionate advocate for some very important causes, including plenty that hit close to home for other parents.

But some commenters suggested Paul was criticising the award itself, not Johnson’s win.

“I don’t think she’s questioning you winning the award. I think she’s questioning the award itself,” one wrote.

Johnson replied: “I struggle to understand someone who attacks an award that champions dads to raise the bar and be more involved with their kids and supportive of their partners.”