Relationships Talk

Since you last saw them on TV, Chicagoans Anthony D’Amico and Ashley Petta have celebrated their second anniversary and announced they are expecting their first child. But let’s get down to brass tacks: Did the couple ever find a Chicago apartment with a parking space for Petta?

“We moved into a place where I have my own parking spot. Anthony does street park,” Petta told the Tribune by phone. “He was almost late to this interview because he couldn’t find parking.”

Two years after meeting at the altar at the Palmer House Hilton, Petta and D’Amico are once again letting reality TV cameras into their relationship. “Married at First Sight: Happily Ever After?” follows them and two other “Married at First Sight” couples as they prepare to become parents.

D’Amico and Petta are the only pair from the “Married at First Sight” Chicago season featured on the spinoff, which is scheduled to premiere at 9 p.m. Tuesday on the Lifetime network.

“The first time around you don’t even know the person you’re spending every day with,” Petta said about filming. “But now it’s just more natural.”

D’Amico, Petta and four other strangers were selected from a pool of thousands of lovelorn Chicagoans and paired by “Married at First Sight” relationship specialists for Season 5, which aired last year. Cameras trailed the three couples as they wed, celebrated their honeymoons and merged their lives over eight weeks.

The Chicago edition of the series — which is set in a different city each season — was noteworthy because all three pairs announced on the finale that they planned to stay married. That goodwill didn’t last long for two of the Chicago couples who divorced last year after their season aired.

“It worked for us,” Petta said about the process. “We definitely put in the work, but I think we were also lucky. We were matched very well.”

The spinoff is more relaxed than the original series. On both shows, the couples meet often with the franchise’s relationship specialists for marriage advice. The difference is that on the spinoff, there isn’t a deadline to decide whether to stay married or call it quits. Instead, the focus is on the couples’ impending births. Petta and D’Amico made their pregnancy announcement in August.

Petta, a 32-year-old suburban bar manager, and D’Amico, a 35-year-old sales and marketing professional, seemed compatible from the start of Season 5, though they did get into some spats. They both said it was difficult to watch their season together because it rekindled arguments they had on the show. Some of those disputes were over finding a Chicago home with a parking space for Petta and D’Amico’s tardiness.

“I am not as late as it looks like,” D’Amico said.

“I disagree with you on that for sure,” Petta said. “He’s still late all the time, but I definitely just got used to it.”

D’Amico said viewers can expect “a whole lot of crazy Anthony and Ashley” on the spinoff.

“We have a really solid relationship,” Petta said. “I think that things are really looking up from here, and we’ve never been in a better place.”

tswartz@tribpub.com

Twitter @tracyswartz

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