Outback Wrangler Matt Wright’s wife Kaia has announced the couple are due to welcome their third baby – as her husband faces potential jail time.
The baby is due in April next year, she confirmed to news.com.au. The Wrights already have two children: six-year-old Banjo and Dusty, who is nearly three.
The news comes just a month after Wright was found guilty of conspiring to cover up details of the helicopter crash that killed his best mate, and he could face up to 15 years in jail.
Lawyers for Wright are battling to keep him out of jail as they prepare appeals against the jury’s findings.
Kaia sat through the trial while pregnant – and kept it a secret from the media until now.
She told the publication: ‘It’s a huge blessing during what has been a hellish time of media onslaught and ongoing bullying. It’s brought my focus back to what is good, true and beautiful, and that’s our family; it’s what really matters.’
The Outback Wrangler star lost his best mate and co-star Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson in the February 2022 crash that left pilot Sebastian Robinson a paraplegic.
The crash occurred during a crocodile-egg collecting trip in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, while Mr Wilson was slung on a line below a chopper to drop onto nests in remote swampland.
Outback Wrangler Matt Wright’s wife Kaia has announced the couple are due to welcome their third baby
The eggs are legally acquired for crocodile farms to hatch and raise the reptiles for eventual conversion into high-end luxury handbags, belts and shoes.
Wright was accused of lying to crash investigators about the amount of fuel in the helicopter, of trying to get Mr Robinson to falsify flying hours, and of asking a friend to ‘torch’ the helicopter’s maintenance release.
On August 29, a Supreme Court jury in Darwin found Wright guilty on the first two counts but could not reach an agreement on the third count regarding the ‘torch’ claim.
Wright was accused of tampering with evidence to cover up false flying hour recordings to extend the life of his helicopters beyond a 2200-hour mandatory threshold.
The jury heard Wright flew to the scene just hours after the fatal crash and looked behind the aircraft’s console to check if the Hobbs flying-hour meter was connected.
His aim was to ensure the meter was not found disconnected by crash investigators who could then work out that Wright and his pilots routinely under-reported flying hours, the jury was told.
Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson died collecting crocodile eggs while slung on a line beneath a helicopter
The helicopter (pictured) crashed during a crocodile egg-collecting mission in remote swampland in the Northern Territory, in February 2022
Wright’s actions were described as ‘pretty cool and clinical and premeditated behaviour’ considering his best friend lay dead nearby.
The prosecution did not allege Wright caused the chopper crash, the death of Mr Wilson or Mr Robinson’s injuries.
The jury heard Wright told police in a statutory declaration he checked the chopper’s fuel tanks and they were ‘half full’.
But he was later allegedly caught on a covert listening device telling an associate the tanks had ‘zero’ fuel in them and Mr Robinson was a ‘shit pilot’.
An Air Transport Safety Bureau investigation concluded the helicopter ran out of fuel, stalling the engine and causing the crash.
Mr Edwardson said refuelling the aircraft was a pilot’s responsibility, and it was also known that when the chopper hit trouble Mr Robinson released Mr Wilson’s sling line at an unsurvivable height of 25 metres.
During the trial, the defence targeted Mr Robinson as a cocaine-dealing ‘party animal’ who was to blame for the crash.
Mr Robinson, who appeared by video link from his wheelchair, said he never flew helicopters while high and he vigorously denied the machine ran out of fuel.
Sebastian Robinson (left) and Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson (right)
Ms Wright, has never her husband’s side throughout the trial after they first met eight years ago
He released a statement read by his brother outside court following the trial, revealing the ‘scars of the defendant’s conduct are huge and permanent’.
Mr Robinson spoke of the ‘immense grief’ of losing his mate Mr Wilson and his family’s trauma as he learnt to live in a wheelchair.
It was made worse by Wright’s cover-up and failure to tell the truth, he said.
‘I also faced a malicious and sustained campaign of lies aimed at destroying my reputation and that of my family. The jury saw the truth.’
Wright has been granted bail ahead of a sentencing hearing on December 12.
Before the jury began deliberating, senior defence counsel David Edwardson told them Wright had gone from being the face of Darwin tourism ‘to now sitting in the dock with his fate in your hands’.
‘A group of men who were thick as thieves, without a care in the world, doing real Northern Territory outback stuff, will never be the same again,’ he said.
‘The tight-knit friendship that existed among this small group of brave people has been forever destroyed.’
Lawyers for reality TV star Matt Wright are battling to keep him out of jail as they prepare appeals against a jury’s finding he tried to pervert the course of justice after a fatal helicopter crash
Kaia and Matt Wright first met when the TV star suddenly landed his helicopter near her while she was with friends on a boat off Rottnest Island in 2014
Following his guilty verdicts, Wright told reporters outside court that there were ‘no winners’ from the trial.
‘The ordeal has been incredibly tough on everyone and it’s always been hard to understand why the focus of these investigations have been solely on me and not into the cause of the crash,’ he said at the time.
Prosecutors have indicated they will be seeking a term of imprisonment for Wright.
The maximum penalty for attempting to pervert the course of justice is 15 years’ in jail.
Ms Wright, has never left her husband’s side throughout the trial after they first met eight years ago.
Kaia was sipping champagne on a boat off Western Australia’s Rottnest Island in 2014 as she rued her shocking love life to some close friends.
‘I’ll just hope an angel will fall from the sky,’ she told them.
And then fate stepped in.
‘Randomly, this chopper just flew in and landed in front of us,’ she later told Stellar magazine about that first meeting with her future husband.
Matt and Kaia Wright are selling their renovated Darwin house for $1.39million, and he has liquidated his helicopter company Helibrook
The accident halted Wright’s endorsement deals, with brands such as Great Northern Brewing Co and Casio G-Shock watches dropping him from campaigns pending the trial outcome
‘He was all booted up. He changed into some shorts and jumped out.’
They exchanged numbers on the first date – she put his next to ‘Big Kid’, he put hers next to ‘Legend’ – and a whirlwind romance followed.
They got engaged in 2016 and married in 2017.
Kaia had grown up in WA’s Kimberley region, where her parents worked in community development in Broome and Derby before she attended high school in Perth.
She studied journalism at university in Sydney – and later wrote her husband’s best-selling life story – before moving into advertising.
Their once-idyllic lives have since been upended by the fatal helicopter crash that killed Wright’s close friend, leaving their multimillion-dollar Northern Territory business empire in limbo.
Since the accident, Wright has lost several lucrative television deals and listed his three-acre Northern Territory property for sale at $1.39million.
Wright’s lead role in Outback Wrangler is believed to have earned him upwards of $250,000 per season.
His follow-up Netflix series Wild Croc Territory featured him as both lead star and executive producer, working with his agent Nick Fordham – further boosting his earnings.
Matt Wright and wife Kaia with their two children Banjo and Dusty leave Darwin Supreme Court after a hearing last year
However, the first season – which also featured Wilson – was derailed by the fatal helicopter crash.
Despite a request from Wilson’s widow to remove it, Netflix has continued streaming the first season of Wild Croc Territory. A planned second season for 2023 was never released.
Wright previously held endorsement deals with Ariat, Yokohama Tyres and Otis Eyewear. Tourism Australia also removed him from its ‘Friends of Australia’ ambassador program.
Among the Wrights’ ventures was Freshwater Retreat – a five-villa luxury property in Darwin that accommodates up to 18 guests and costs more than $5,000 for a two-night stay.
They also invested in the Top End Safari Camp, south of Darwin, where guests can stay in tents, enjoy airboat rides, and take scenic helicopter flights to spot crocodiles, birds and buffalo.
In addition, they operated Tiwi Island Retreat, a beachfront marine sanctuary on remote Bathurst Island, part of the Tiwi Islands group.
Wright shut down several other ventures under his parent company, Wright Expeditions, including 1300 HELIFISH, 1800 HELIFISH, Helicopter Pub Crawls, and Matt Wright Explore the Wild.
