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Every year, we tune in to watch the chaos unfold between the brides and grooms on Married at First Sight Australia.
There are cheating scandals, feuds, relationship breakdowns, and hopefully — if we’re lucky — John Aiken being Very Mad at some bad behaviour.
And this MAFS season has thus far delivered, both in the on-screen chaos and the gossip behind the scenes.
Watch the trailer for Married At First Sight 2024. Post continues below.
Here is all the drama that’s happened… so far!
Ridge and Jade find themselves at the centre of a cheating scandal.
Just when you thought there would be no more cheating scandals, a third one has come out of the woodwork.
According to So Dramatic! intruders Ridge Barredo and Jade Pywell’s relationship isn’t as loved up as it looks on-screen.
It was revealed on the podcast that the two are currently in Bali, sharing photos together on their private social media accounts. Ridge also has Jade’s name tattooed on his back.
However, an anonymous source told the gossip site that just before the trip, Ridge cheated.
“Ridge cheated on Jade. She told me,” the source said. “Ridge never planned on moving to the Gold Coast. He said he loved her but not enough to move his life for her.”
The source also claimed that Ridge kept in contact with his ex throughout filming despite having dumped her to go on the show.
“He knows how to put it on for a camera, that’s for sure,” the source said.
“The shit he spun about his ex and the sh*t he lied about was ridiculous.”
Ellie apparently ended her relationship to go on the show.
Groom Jack might not have been the only one to end his relationship to go on Married at First Sight.
According to the So Dramatic! podcast, bride Ellie said au revoir to her boyfriend of four months to go on the reality show. She even told her groom about it.
“She openly admitted this to Ben on their honeymoon during the Confessions Box challenge. She said it on camera, but they never showed it,” the source said.
While another, a contestant who spoke to the publication anonymously, said the bride “tried to insert herself into the main drama”.
“It’s funny that Ben copped so much sh*t from Ellie’s cousin for being fame-hungry when that’s exactly why she went on the show,” they said.
A third source said Ellie has been applying for different reality shows for years.
“She applied for Love Triangle, but they moved her over to MAFS,” they said.
Some brides and grooms thought Madeleine was conducting her own ‘experiment’ on MAFS.
You might be across Madeleine’s bizarre antics on Married At First Sight, but it was the other brides and grooms who seemed to have picked up on it first.
According to The Wash, she raised questions during the experiment after they found out she was an actor, despite only telling everyone she was a psychic medium.
“As the weeks passed, Madeleine didn’t have many friends in the cast and most became convinced she was conducting her own social experiment within the experiment of the show,” the insider told the publication.
“They think once the show has wrapped she’s going to come out and say she was secretly playing a character all along, wanting to see if she could fool Australia, [and] then try to relaunch her acting career.
“Even now that months have passed since filming wrapped half of them are baffled by her.”
MAFS groom Timothy Smith lied about having “no family”.
The controversial groom has been called out for having a secret sister after he claimed he had no family.
You might remember during the wedding between Lucinda Light and her husband, he was asked about his family — to which he said they were “all dead”. Turns out, he only meant dead to him.
So Dramatic! reported the groom lied about having a sister, who he used to be “quite close” to, according to an ex-partner. He apparently also has “heaps of cousins in Queensland.”
“Tim and his sister have had a very turbulent relationship. They have gone through some good and bad periods,” an alleged close family friend told the publication.
“He was in contact with her when his dad died, but she told him she didn’t want anything to do with MAFS and begged him not to mention her. Which he respected.”
The source continued, “They are completely estranged, and I don’t think they will ever speak again. So, technically, in his eyes, he doesn’t have a sister.”
Three popular couples had a “secret pact” to stay on the show.
It’s been revealed that there was a “secret pact” between three couples on Married At First Sight, who vowed they would remain on the show despite not having a genuine connection.
An insider told Daily Mail Australia that Lauren and Jono, Tim and Sara and Jayden and Eden vowed they would remain on the show despite not having a genuine connection.
“Lauren and Jono’s relationship was similarly tumultuous, with the two barely spending any time together on weekends, Tim and Sara were also constantly at odds,” they said.
According to the source, we will see the “secret pact” come out when a “fed-up” groom admits to being part of it.
“It was a mess,” the source said, adding that the producers of the show were “pissed off” about the fake relationships.
MAFS’ big boss Tara McWilliams admits they’ve kicked couples off the show for faking their relationship.
Tara McWilliams, who is responsible for turning MAFS into the popular show it is, told Daily Mail Australia that there are couples who don’t go on the show to find love (wow, you don’t say?).
“We’re never gonna know how genuine people are (before going on the show). Everyone’s genuinely there because they enjoy mixed views,” she explained.
She then admitted they’ve had a few questionable couples that they have removed when it became clear they were not genuinely looking for love.
“I can count it on probably two fingers the number of times it’s happened where we’ve gone, ‘We’re not buying this, and it’s time to go’, and I’m not going to say who those couples are,” she said.
Sara has become involved in a love triangle with 2023 exes, Tahnee and Ollie.
The favourite couple to come out of the 2023 MAFS season — Tahnee Cook and Ollie Skelton — have got caught up in some drama involving 2024 bride, Sara Mesa.
The couple broke up in December 2023 and in a new interview, Tahnee claimed Sara slid into Ollie’s DMs while they were together to complain about her MAFS hubby, Tim Calwell.
“I know Sara was messaging Ollie and she wasn’t saying the nicest things about Tim,” Tahnee claimed on Yahoo Lifestyle’s Behind The Edit podcast.
“I remember Ollie mentioning this to me when we were together and I was like, ‘Oh that’s a bit weird’ and then we just… we forgot about it, and then I was like ‘Oh it’s that couple’. She didn’t really have the nicest things to say, so then watching it now it’s interesting.”
Tahnee noted Ollie didn’t show his then-partner the contents of Sara’s DMs.
“I think she had reached out after listening to his podcast, you know, a couple people reach out asking for advice and stuff. He didn’t show me the messages which is interesting but anyway we’ll leave that!”
Ollie has since responded to Tahnee by sharing a screenshot of the message he sent Sara. In a feisty move, he captioned the Instagram Story with a message directed at his ex: “Please stop doing this Tahnee.”
The screenshot showed Ollie sharing some advice with Sara while she was filming MAFS.
Sara suggested there’s more than one cheating scandal this season.
In a chat with The Kyle and Jackie O Show, Sara and the hosts alluded to two cheating scandals on this year’s season.
Word on the street (aka the Daily Mail) is that Ellie Dix and Jonathan McCullough will ditch their experiment partners and get together, even appearing at the reunion together.
But during the radio segment, a different cheating scandal emerged: potentially between Tim and an ex-girlfriend.
Host Kyle Sandilands said to the Columbian bride: “I don’t know if this is true, but multiple people I know up in Queensland have said that Tim’s been rooting this Brazilian [woman] the entire time, all through MAFS, all through filming,” the host alleged.
It sounded like Sara wasn’t across this information, asking Kyle if Tim had been sleeping with the woman “throughout the whole show”.
“Yeah, he knew her and there was something going on,” Kyle responded.
Sara replied, “It might’ve been an ex… I actually can’t remember if the ex was Italian or Brazilian.”
She then became vague when asked if she was involved in a potential cheating scandal. “I’m definitely not banging anyone else on the show. Something weird’s happening for sure, there’s a cheating scandal.”
Intriguing!
Collins addresses his sexuality.
During the first commitment ceremony, Natalie Parham wrote ‘leave’, but as her husband Collins Christian wrote ‘stay’, viewers expected the couple to remain in the experiment.
However, they were both forcibly removed, according to reports (more on that later) and following Collins’ time on the show, he is clearing up on The Kyle and Jackie O Show some rather… bizarre rumours.
The first being that he is secretly gay.
“Am I gay? No, I’m not gay. Not gay at all,” he said. “Have I dabbled? No, not at all, mate. I remember back in Year 6 I watched gay porn before just to see would it… I knew straight away, I’m not gay.”
And then when prodded about his sexual experience, after Kyle asked if he’d “had sex with the ladies”, Collins said he wasn’t a virgin — and not a planted actor either.
I can sleep better knowing this information now.
Ellie and Ben’s leaked video diary.
Ben Walters and Ellie Dix have had an interesting week.
On Tuesday evening, MAFS Instagram gossip accounts MAFSFunny and The Wash shared a joint post with a leaked video diary from the couple.
In the clip, the pair discuss their true feelings for one another and say they might have a bad edit.
The footage seems to have been “recorded the week they filmed” episode 11, which was Tuesday night’s episode.
On the show, they haven’t had a smooth journey so far, and in the clip, Ben and Ellie said they might not be seen favourably after a big MAFS edit.
For context, they hit a rough patch when Ellie accused Ben of mocking her. They also couldn’t agree on the topic of children, with Ellie being 100 per cent in, and Ben dancing around the question.
“Maybe this is not good. Maybe I could be — you know — maybe Ellie really hates me,” Ben says, before Ellie chimes in, “I don’t hate him. You know, the way these producers make it seem like this huge drama.”
Ellie goes on to call out the producers, adding she could recall praising her reality TV husband in one-on-one interviews.
“What I’m trying to say is you might only be getting a snippet of me saying ‘he made me feel angry’, but that was last night and I was angry,” she adds.
“They’re just getting my side. So, I didn’t write Ben off but all it takes is a little cut here and there and then all of a sudden it’s like ‘Ben is a…'”
Collins and Natalie were ‘removed’ from the show.
You might remember when Collins and Natalie abruptly left the show despite the groom writing ‘stay’ and the bride writing ‘leave’. We watched as Natalie abruptly ended their time together, claiming her partner was putting on a “surface-level performance”.
But was there more to the story? An insider told Yahoo Lifestyle that the couple were actually ‘removed’ from the show.
“The rules and premise of the show are irrelevant if they compromise a participant’s wellbeing or mental health, and ESA [Endemol Shine Australia producers] take their duty of care seriously,” the source alleged.
“Natalie had already tried to quit at the first dinner party, but was talked into remaining until the first commitment ceremony to ‘see their storyline through’. When it then became apparent she would have to stay another week, bosses stepped in and removed her and Collins from the show as soon as they could wrap it up on camera.”
The insider claimed that Natalie’s emotional state played into the decision, with the MAFS bride’s father having died just weeks before her wedding.
“The experiment is an emotional rollercoaster as it is, but factor in Natalie’s vulnerability from her lack of relationship experience prior to filming and the grief she was experiencing following her father’s very recent death and she was in no state to continue production.”
In a post-exit interview, Natalie admitted that her grief took a toll on her relationship with Collins.
“It’s a rough trot being put with someone who lost their dad, [and] mum has cancer,” Natalie said.
“There were so many complex emotions that he would’ve had to really be able to battle with and try and overcome that to find love. And I get that that’s really hard, really unfair.”
For Collins’ part, he was left disappointed his experience was cut short.
“I felt like I started the experiment at the start line and I finished at the start line,” Collins reflected.
“I missed out on so much.”
Collins previously auditioned for another season of MAFS.
Collins proved to be a divisive contestant this season as the TV husband of Natalie. The twosome didn’t exactly hit it off, with Natalie leaving the first dinner party in a flood of tears while Collins appeared more upset about the fact that his time on the reality show might be over, rather than caring about the welfare of his TV wife.
As mentioned above, they have since departed the experiment.
But it turns out Collins has tried to land a spot on MAFS before, with a video surfacing that shows the groom’s face in a collage of auditions for the 2023 season.
In a comedy skit for ABC’s The Weekly that aired in April 2023, film critic Margaret Pomeranz shared a parody review of MAFS. Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed that Collins’ face appeared in an early episode.
And like clockwork, it’s also come out that Collins could be an aspiring actor as, on his socials, he posted an Ashley and Martin commercial he starred in.
A former MAFS contestant claims they slept with Jayden.
Married At First Sight bride Carolina Santos is claiming she ‘hooked up’ with Jayden Eynaud while he had a girlfriend.
Carolina is best known for ditching her MAFS match Dion Giannarelli to start an ‘affair’ with groom Daniel Holmes in the 2022 season. The Brazilian has shared an Instagram Story claiming she got together with the kickboxer, not knowing he had a girlfriend at the time.
“I didn’t want to get involved in all this drama, but since so many of you are asking. No, I didn’t know Jayden had a girlfriend when we hooked up,” she began.
“If I’d known, I definitely wouldn’t have gone there. Anyway, it’s news to me, and I’m sorry to her.”
Jayden hasn’t confirmed or denied if they hooked up, or if he had a girlfriend when it allegedly happened.
Lauren claims to know some NSFW info about a groom.
Married At First Sight’s loosest unit Lauren Dunn overshared during an appearance on KIIS FM’s Kyle & Jackie O show.
When asked about Jack Dunkley, Lauren said that the groom was into ‘watersports’ in the bedroom, a subject that was raised during Intimacy Week.
For the unfamiliar, the term typically refers to ‘piss play’ or ‘golden showers’ during sex.
The radio hosts were left stunned that Lauren shared these details. “What?! Is this on the show? Are we seeing this on the show?” Kyle Sandilands asked.
“Yeah. It comes out on the show,” Lauren replied. “It gets pretty wild. It’s pretty crazy.”
In the interview, Lauren also claimed that she hadn’t seen her groom Jonathan McCullough naked. “We haven’t got there yet,” she admitted. “I’ve seen the bulge through the pants… It’s a great bulge.”
How delightful!
One of The Bachelors was axed and recast on MAFS.
Thirty-nine-year-old tour guide Ben Walters was wed this season, but it turns out he was initially going to be on The Bachelors.
So Dramatic! first reported that the Newcastle-based man was set to be one of the three men starring on the long-running Ten show, however, he was axed from the gig. Sorry to this man!
“He was convinced he had bagged the role and even cancelled several tours and holidays he had planned with friends,” a source told the Daily Mail.
But after Warner Bros dropped Ben at the 11th hour, he received a phone call. “After Warner Bros. pulled out, he received a call from EndemolShine producers. He didn’t hesitate and quickly accepted the offer.”
I guess when one door closes another one opens?? Or else, some reality TV execs are definitely in a group chat.
Ben already has a small following with a popular TikTok, podcast and YouTube page where he shares travel ideas.
Sounds like a man after true love, hey!
Jack’s ex claims she was dumped right before filming.
The ex-girlfriend of groom Jack Dunkley claimed in August last year that she was dumped right before filming commenced.
Courtney Jade claimed in a comment, shared on The Wash’s Instagram in August 2023, that Jack had broken up with her “right after I met his family and he told me he loves me”. He apparently told her he had a “work opportunity in America” – but was actually headed to Sydney to film the reality show.
“We spoke regularly about our future together and I don’t believe he is on the show for the right reasons at all,” Courtney commented on photos of Jack on his wedding day shared to social media.
“Good luck to his new wife,” the woman later told The Wash. “I even started selling my furniture when we were together as we spoke about moving in together. This is definitely the worst thing a man has ever done to me. I’d been driving myself crazy for a month wondering why everything was so shady [when he ended it].”
Since Jack’s episode aired, Courtney has since spoken out about how watching her ex get married has affected her.
“It’s been a very hard time in my life. One that I don’t wish on anyone,” she told the Daily Mail. “I hope this doesn’t continue to happen to other people. It was a horrible experience and not something I want to talk about.”
Jack addressed the scandal in a TV interview.
Jack addressed the controversy during a live interview with David Campbell and Sylvia Jeffreys on Today Extra.
“I was having a bit of a casual relationship early on in the year,” Jack said. “I can assure you when I was applying for MAFS to get married, in my opinion, I was not in a serious relationship at all whatsoever.”
At this stage, David pressed Jack on one detail. “Did you say you were going to leave the country to this person, and then just turn up on television?”
Jack then got a little riled up. “Oh buddy, let’s go there. Let’s go there,” Jack responded.
“I regrettably said I’m actually going overseas for a few months… so the door is shut.”
Alrighty then!
*That* best man reckons his speech copped a bad edit.
Groom Tim Calwell’s best man, Ben, delivered one of the most controversial speeches in the show’s history when he ended his speech by seemingly comparing oral sex with bride Sara Mesa to eating expired chicken.
“Sara, you can find solace in the fact that, rancid or not, Tim will still eat you,” Ben actually said.
The best man has since elaborated on the speech and, err… he seems to have no regrets.
“Everyone clapped and cried. And Sara was [even] tearing up because it was so heartfelt,” he told host Megan Pustetto on the So Dramatic! podcast.
“I did have [my] beer goggles [on]. But I saw lots of laughter, and I thought people really enjoyed it, and there was definitely applause, which we didn’t hear [in the final edit].”
Ben claimed that the MAFS producers approved his speech before it went ahead. “[They] totally approved it. They said: ‘Love it’,” he alleged.
The best man added the premiere only aired the most shocking parts of his speech.
No way! This is brand new information for reality TV fans!
“When [the crude jokes] are sandwiched between the more heartfelt moments, it doesn’t feel so jaw-dropping. I didn’t wish to have offended people. I’d hope to have entertained.” Hard fail, my man!
A record number of runaway brides and grooms.
It started with Simon Flocco, an Adelaide-based restaurant manager, who decided to pull out of the show just days before his wedding, which has been teased in promos ahead of the January 31st episode.
“In all of our years of this experiment, this is unprecedented,” John Aiken says in a clip for the show, followed by a bride whispering to another contestant: “Did you hear one of the grooms… is gone.”
Compared to other contestants, Simon appears extremely serious in the promotional imagery for the show. That’s because the photo used was apparently one he’d previously sent in.
“The picture of Simon is one he submitted to producers himself during pre-production to show them his suit,” the source told Yahoo Lifestyle Australia.
“Shortly after filming his backstory and the groom’s bucks party, he changed his mind about doing the show and quit.”
He told the Daily Mail: “MAFS wasn’t what I thought I wanted at this point in my life, that’s all.”
Sources told the publication that Simon’s exit had production “running around like headless chickens trying to salvage the situation”, but they ended up casting a replacement.
Now it looks like several participants abruptly quit the show throughout the season – and while we don’t know exactly who just yet, reports say at least one of the brides is among them.
“She was having none of it, and I think she was regretting ever signing up for the show,” an insider told Daily Mail Australia.
As such, MAFS producers’ plans have been “derailed” multiple times.
According to reports, things ended up working out, but only because casting producers could find last-minute replacements.
It seems like these replacements will be brought in as intruders, but much earlier than in past seasons.
MAFS bride Lauren Dunn used to date AFL star Ryan Crowley.
And the timing of their breakup is just a little bit suspicious.
Lauren, who is one of the many brides tying the knot this year, reportedly ended her relationship with AFL star Ryan Crowley back in May.
While she’s refused to comment on the breakup, Perth Now reported that she said, “the relationship had simply run its course” and that the pair still “remain on good terms”.
Either way, we hope she has found exactly what she’s looking for on MAFS, but considering the show’s history and the rumours circulating about the newest season, our hopes are not very high…
There’s not one villain on Married At First Sight 2024. There are SIX.
You read that correctly.
Six villains will be on the 11th season of MAFS and we could not be more ready.
According to So Dramatic, it’s looking like there’s going to be some never-before-seen beef among the brides and grooms, and “absolutely abhorrent” behaviour playing out on our screens.
Married at First Sight 2023 bride Melinda Willis told Hit Network’s The Pulse with Seany B & Emma G that “this season is going to take it to the next level”.
“I have heard on the grapevine that this year there’s not one or two villains, there’s six of them,” she said.
“… I’m so excited, I’ve got my popcorn ready!” Us too, girl!
MAFS contestants have to abide by much stricter rules this year.
Considering how… off the charts… participants have been in seasons past, reports are claiming that the 2024 cast must abide by some seriously strict rules.
Many might recall The Bachelor cast being offered a $5000 bonus to stay quiet on the outcome of the show. It looks like this season of Married At First Sight is going to follow suit.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if MAFS put something like that in and if not, I think they should,” Melinda said on The Pulse with Seany B & Emma G.
Another revenge porn scandal.
Yeah. It’s happened again – this time, with a groom to be the one facing backlash, it seems.
According to reports, one husband on the show shared intimate snaps of his ex at a gym. And while we don’t know yet who the groom is, it looks like a MAFS co-star will call him out.
The show’s relationship expert John Aiken has also shared that the upcoming series will see brides and grooms airing each other’s dirty laundry.
“I often think loose lips sink ships,” he told Daily Mail Australia. “In this series, people often air dirty laundry when they shouldn’t and there are consequences to that.”
Oh, and another cheating scandal.
Are we really surprised at this point?
One groom, reports Daily Mail Australia, will find out during filming that his bride had a secret rendezvous. With another groom? Guess we’ll find out!
But according to reports, he was “heartbroken” when he learned of the betrayal.
“The cheating scandal only came out because [someone] decided to betray their friend in an attempt to bring in some drama,” an insider said.
Feature Image: Nine.
This article was originally published on January 30, 2024 and has since been updated with new information.
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