One moment MasterChef SA's Khaya Silingile was dashing round Zanzibar buying ingredients for their market challenge and the next she crashed into the smell of fish and declared that she's pregnant.
13 weeks into the series. There hadn't been any sign that she'd been cooking a baby in between challenges so her sudden announcement opened a can of questions, including the identity of her baby’ daddy. Is he a contestant? I caught up with her to find out:
Tashi: Did you know that you were pregnant when you started filming the show?
Khaya: Yes and No, I found out during the filming of boot camp that I was pregnant. We had to do a complete medical and my pregnancy test came back positive!
Tashi: Why didn’t you tell anyone before episode 13?
Khaya: It was still very early on in the pregnancy. I was only 4 weeks pregnant when I found out and during that stage anything can happen. There were a few people that I had made close connections with at the time who knew about the pregnancy. But I wanted to keep it as quiet as possible until at least the first trimester was over.
Tashi: What was your first thought when you found out?
Khaya: I found out the day before the braai challenge and it was quite scary because I thought the producers wouldn't allow me to continue with the show, but luckily they left the decision up to me, obviously based on whether I made it through to top 18 or not and so I chose to stay on when I was selected to go through.
Tashi: Is your baby-daddy one of the MasterChef contestants?!
Khaya: No he isn't, funny enough we all laughed about it after I had revealed I was pregnant on how viewers would probably start speculating on which of the contestants is the father!
He's my partner of 4 years - my current fiancé - and we are both extremely happy and excited about the new addition to our family.
Tashi: How far along are you right this moment? When is your baby due?
Khaya: I am now 27 weeks pregnant and am due in September.
Tashi: Have you decided on a name for him/her yet?
Khaya: It’s a boy and no we have not decided on any names as yet. We have had some suggestions from friends and family but we haven’t settled for anything as yet…