MAFS’ Domenica Calarco hits back over co-parenting criticism: ‘I would do it again’

Exclusive: Domenica Calarco celebrated her daughter Dove’s first birthday over the weekend and confessed in a raw video that she was disappointed ex Jarod Bogunovich, Dove’s father, wasn’t present for the entire day.

In a since-deleted clip, Calarco, 33, claimed Bogunovich planned to attend a wedding as a groomsman on Dove’s milestone birthday.

The Married At First Sight star admitted she was disappointed by his choice and hoped to have an honest conversation about it with her audience, many of whom are parents.

Instead, she was inundated with messages attacking her as a woman, a mother, and a co-parent.

“I didn’t get this level of hate during MAFS, I didn’t when stuff happened with the podcast in 2024,” Calarco told nine.com.au of the backlash.

“I made that video, I posted it, and I was like, ‘I think it might ruffle some feathers’ ... but I didn’t know this was going to happen.

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“It just ended up on a part of the internet I genuinely didn’t believe existed. I am dumbfounded at the comments.”

Commenters lashed Calarco for her honesty, calling her disappointment over the situation “ridiculous”.

Some pointed to videos Calarco shared to social media that showed Bogunovich was present on the morning of Dove’s birthday on Saturday, and at her enchanted garden-themed birthday party on Sunday.

“He was there in the morning, but you expected him to spend the entire day with you both?” one wrote.

“You’re not together. Sadly the idea of perfect co-parenting rarely works out. He did the right thing by being there and THEN going to the wedding of someone who is obviously also important to him.”

Calarco said people were drawing conclusions about her as a mother and co-parent based on a single clip and without knowing the full situation.

“There’s so much more context to it, but people have just really taken that one instance and just run with it and judged everything on that,” she said.

She claimed she has been disappointed many times before while trying to co-parent and hasn’t spoken up, but the one time she did she got attacked.

It left her feeling like strangers just wanted to tear her down for having the confidence to speak about the situation.

Some commenters also took aim at the solo mum for a speech she delivered at Dove’s party on Sunday, where she thanked and congratulated herself for all the work she’s put in during her first year as a solo mum.

She stands by the fact that she deserved a moment to pat herself on the back.

“Them saying that I was making it all about me – it’s just like, excuse my language, but f--k you, I am going to pat myself on the back,” she said.

“Because, at the end of the day, no one else was going to that day. [Dove’s] dad wasn’t going to stand there and say, ‘Thanks to Domenica for 12 months of raising a beautiful child’.

“The comments are disgusting, but I’m not going to delete that video because I stand by it and I would do it again.”

Calarco got the last word in the end, posting a take on the popular ‘Netflix documentary’ trend with Dove in her arms.

“Preparing for my Netflix interview about going through a breakup 10 weeks pregnant, giving birth weighing 46 kilos, baby daddy not buying flowers after I gave birth, co-parenting, taking up knitting to cure my sadness,” she wrote over the video.

She captioned it simply, “I said what I said”.

Motherhood isn’t easy, especially for solo mums, and Calarco has been open about the challenges she’s faced since welcoming Dove a year ago.

She and Bogunovich split around the same time she publicly announced her pregnancy and confirmed she’d be raising their child solo.

Bogunovich still co-parents, but Calarco is Dove’s primary caregiver and has spoken about the pressure she’s struggled with in that role.

“At the end of the day, I am just a first-time mum doing this for the first time, learning along the way, and sharing the ups and the downs,” Calarco said.