Gold Coast influencer Hannah Orval and her partner, American football player Patrick Murtagh, have announced that their baby boy was stillborn, sharing the news on social media alongside monochrome photos of the couple holding their son.
"Meelo Michael Murtagh, born into this big world early and sleeping. He will forever be the biggest missing piece of the rest of our story," Orval wrote. "We are absolutely devastated, but forever our biggest achievement in life."
The swimwear entrepreneur, 27, also wrote that being a family, even briefly, was "irreplaceable" and that she would go through childbirth again "every day in every lifetime" to meet him.
Orval's father Mark, a social media personality known as Angry Dad and a former AFL player, paid tribute to his grandson, writing that Meelo would forever be in his heart and praising the couple's strength. "You are beautiful humans," he wrote.
Her mother Sharon Orval, chief executive of a health supplement company, also shared a message, describing holding and kissing the baby as "both the happiest and saddest moment" of her life. She praised Murtagh, 26, for his care of Hannah throughout.
The couple received comments from hundreds of friends, including AFL players Nick Daicos, Oleg Markov and Sam Draper, as well as influencers Mia Fevola, Annalise Dalins and Casey Battle.
Orval and Murtagh went public with their relationship in September 2024, though they reportedly began dating a year earlier. Before his career in American football, Murtagh spent three years playing AFL for the Gold Coast Suns.
