What a dote.
Former Home and Away star Mat Stevenson has taken a massive step in his family life and adopted his daughter’s best friend.
After being turned away by her own father for being transgender, Mat took her under his wing and has now made her an official part of the family.
Known best as Adam Cameron on the hit Australian soap, he formally adopted TikTok star Belle Bambi and they made a very adorable TikTok to break the news.
Mat’s daughter Grace Hyland is also trans and has been identifying as woman since she was 12, so the two best friends knew her dad was guaranteed to accept Belle too.
@grace.hylanddWe’re sisters now! @bambifairy ##trans ##lgbt ##foryou ##adoption ##family♬ Opportunity – Quvenzhané Wallis
Revealing the big news to her 229,000 TikTok followers, Grace wrote: “My BFF’s dad left because she’s trans, so, we did this!”
Showing the adoption certificate, Mat has joined his two daughters and gives Belle a kiss on the cheek.
She continued: “Dad is adopting her!!! He’s always supported me and he wants to support Bambi too.
“We’re sisters now.”
Over on her own account, Belle published a similar video showing their journey.
View this post on Instagram
She wrote: “Finally a dad who accepts and loves me for who I am.”
The adoption papers are not legally binding but do state that Mat is her “chosen dad”, and that’s good enough in our eyes.
Mat opened up about his daughter coming out as trans earlier this year, and explained the journey they have been on since.
“As a bloke, it was pretty awkward to go to my male friend group and say my son’s now my daughter,” he revealed to The Sunday Project, alongside his daughter.
“But then I look at the challenges and the difficulty of sharing that in comparison with the challenges that Grace has sailed through and they pale into insignificance.”
