It wouldn’t be Married At First Sight (MAFS) without the infamous couple swap, and 2025 is shaping up to be a doozy. According to rumours, there’s one couple swap this year involving Jacqueline Burfoot and Clint Rice hooking up — something I never saw coming.
It kinda makes sense, because when you dump a bunch of attractive people into a high-pressure experiment there’s bound to be attraction outside of your marriage.
So, how many couple swaps have there been since MAFS started airing in Australia? I decided to do a lil’ digging.
All the couple swaps in Married At First Sight history
Jacqui Burfoot and Clint Rice
Jacqui and Ryan Donnelly have been through a lot this year, so it makes sense that the pair don’t last. From Ryan dropping Jacqui at their wedding to bragging about her oral sex skills in front of the boys, their relationship screams toxic.
According to an insider, Clint swaps his wife Lauren Hall for Jacqui and they reveal their relationship at the Reunion.
“Ryan was really fucking upset. He made a huge drama out of it, even though he didn’t want to be with Jacqui,” the source tells PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“Rhi Disljenkovic was also annoyed, but most of the other cast members were happy for the new couple.”
The pair are said to be living in Tasmania now and “do absolutely everything together”.
Lauren Hall and Clint Rice
In a MAFS first, Lauren and Eliot Donovan were brought back into the experiment in 2025 after lasting just three days together. Lauren has since been paired up with pro golfer Clint, and some cracks are already starting to show in their relationship.
Lauren is after an “alpha male”, which she doesn’t reckon Clint is. She wants him to stop shaving his chest and getting spray tans, so it makes sense the pair eventually break up.
Eliot Donovan and Veronica Cloherty
Eliot was given a second chance by the experts and matched with actress Veronica Cloherty. However, after ditching Lauren during their honeymoon, Veronica is suspicious of Eliot’s actions and they’re currently staying in separate apartments.
According to Chattr, the partner swap challenge coming up will also cause issues in their relationship as Eliot shares a bed with Rhi Disljenkovic.
“Rhi and Eliot [said] off camera they weren’t sharing a bed but then actually [did], because nobody wanted to get a bad back,” the source said. At the Dinner Party, Veronica and Rhi go “head to head”.
“Veronica says to Rhi, ‘I don’t appreciate my husband lying to me about sharing a bed with another wife’,” the insider said.
Jonathan McCullough and Ellie Dix
Season 11 bride Lauren Dunn was blindsided after finding “over 100 messages” between her husband Jonathan McCullough and former bride Ellie Dix.
While Jono swore he was just friends with Ellie, Lauren looked through the messages and said they were being “inappropriate”.
One week after MAFS Final Vows, Jono called Ellie and arranged a coffee date. Their date lasted six hours and they shared their first kiss just 10 hours later.
At the reunion, Jono rocked up with Ellie to show off their new romance. They kinda rubbed it in Lauren’s face and kept pashing at the dinner table, which was uncomfortable to watch.
Jono and Ellie are still together today so congrats to them, I guess?
Duncan James and Evelyn Ellis
Duncan James was paired with Alyssa Barmonde in Season 10 and their relationship seemed really strong at the beginning.
However, cracks started to show when Alyssa felt Duncan wasn’t giving her the emotional connection she wanted as a mum. And yep, their relationship spawned that famous catchphrase of “I have a chiiiiiiild”. Iconic.
Sparks started flying between Duncan and Evelyn Ellis during the partner swap, in which the participants spent days with another partner. According to Alyssa, Duncan wanted to share a bed with Evelyn during the task because the couch was “uncomfortable.”
The couple shared their first kiss at Mardi Gras in 2023 and hard launched in May that same year. They’ve stayed together since, and seem to be one of the most solid MAFS couples to come out of the experiment so far.
Carolina Santos and Daniel Holmes
Carolina Santos and Daniel Holmes shocked the entire Season 9 cast when they walked into a Commitment Ceremony hand in hand. At this point, Daniel had left the experiment after breaking up with Jessica Seracino, and Carolina was still with Dion Giannarelli.
It was SO messy.
A bunch of the cast left the Commitment Ceremony in protest and the experts refused to let Carolina and Daniel join the experiment as a new couple.
The pair seemed happy for a while post-experiment, but their relationship fizzled out after about 10 months.
Coco Stedman and Cameron Dunne
Season 8’s Coco Stedman and Cameron Dunne found solace in each other while navigating rocky relationships. The pair had sneaky meetings behind Sam Carraro and Samantha Harvey’s backs, sharing a kiss before deciding to leave the experiment.
At the reunion, they dropped a bombshell: they’d actually slept together post-experiment. However, the couple didn’t last long.
“It didn’t go far… I moved to Queensland and it just kind of disappeared, really,” Cameron told the experts.
Jessika Power and Dan Webb
Season 6 ‘villain’ Jessika Power ditched her husband Mick Gould for Dan Webb, who was matched with Tamara Joy. The new couple asked to return together with just two weeks left to go and seemed pretty solid.
However, at the Reunion, Dan was blindsided to see that Jessika had also tried to get together with Nic Jovanovic, who was married to Cyrell Paule.
Jessika and Dan broke up shortly after during a live episode of Talking Married, leaving Jessika devastated.
“I really loved him,” Jessika said on Big Brother VIP.
“I moved states for him, I moved my whole life and I thought I was doing the right thing… it just hurt as well because it’s not like a normal breakup where it’s private and you talk about it with each other. The whole of Australia knew, I got broken up with on national TV.”
Ines Basic and Sam Ball
Ines Basic and Sam Ball’s affair in Season 6 was a massive storyline. Ines never seemed to connect with Bronson Norrish and Sam wasn’t happy with Lizzie Sobinoff. Things got steamy when Ines and Sam planned a night together in the Gold Coast.
“It’s just bound to happen. Sam with his shirt off, me with my clothes off, just pashing on,” Ines told producers. And yep, the couple certainly got hot and heavy!
Sam ended up admitting to the affair during the next Commitment Ceremony, but also dropped another bombshell: he didn’t see a future with Ines. Yikes!!
Davina Rankin and Dean Wells
Season 5’s couple swap involves one of the most villainous MAFS grooms of all time — Dean Wells, who was matched with Tracey Jewel. He had an emotional affair with Davina Rankin, who was matched with Ryan Gallagher.
Davina and Dean decided to leave their partners and asked to come back into the experiment as a new couple, but Dean suddenly changed his mind. He admitted to the emotional affair during a Commitment Ceremony but embarrassed Davina when he tried to go all-in with Tracey.
Dean and Tracey ended up making it to Final Vows where he revealed he was in love with her, but she dumped him over his betrayal.
Tracey Jewel and Sean Thomsen
Tracey Jewel and Sean Thomsen shocked their Season 5 castmates when they turned up to the Reunion together. Sean was originally matched with Blair Rachael, but the couple looked super lovey-dovey while kissing for the cameras.
Tracey and Sean lasted for several months before calling it quits, with Tracey blaming the lack of “stability” when it came to Sean’s FIFO job.
Troy Delmege and Carly Bowyer
Troy Delmege and Carly Bowyer didn’t have successful marriages on the show, calling it quits with Ashley Irving and Justin Fischer. However, nobody expected these two to get together!
Just like Tracey and Sean, Troy and Carly rocked up to the Season 5 reunion hand-in-hand to debut their new relationship. Sadly, the couple broke up after nine months together.
“We wanted this more than anything and have fought for each other to the end so it’s heartbreaking that we’ve had to make the incredibly difficult decision that our lives no longer align and we are unable to make this work,” Carly wrote on Instagram at the time.
“You’re my best friend and I will always be here for you. It’s the end of this chapter but it’s not goodbye.”
Jonathan Troughton and Scarlett Cooper
Jonathan Troughton was involved in Season 4’s biggest scandal when he started texting Scarlett Cooper behind his wife Cheryl Maitland’s back.
Cheryl was upset by the revelation and dumped him through tears.
“I hate disloyal people. I heard you last night saying you got paired with the wrong person. And then you swapped numbers and you have been talking to each other,” Cheryl said.
“It’s a dog move and I’m so betrayed by you. Both of you.”
Jonathan and Scarlett told TheFIX they thought about starting up a romance but ended up realising it wasn’t a good idea.
“We would have made a cute couple for TV, but not for real life,” Jonathan said.
Cheryl Maitland and Andrew ‘Jonesy’ Jones
After Cheryl left the experiment due to Jonathan’s texting scandal, the experts paired her up with Andrew ‘Jonesy’ Jones, who was originally matched with runaway bride Lauren Bran.
These two weren’t well matched at all, and dominated headlines at the time. At their final Commitment Ceremony, Cheryl said she was “disgusted” by Jonesy’s behaviour on the show. It’s no surprise these two didn’t end up together!
Jono Pitman and Michelle Marsh
Season 4 bride Michelle Marsh left the experiment without her husband Jesse Konstantinoff, but soon found solace in Season 2 groom Jono Pitman. The couple never officially confirmed the romance rumours, but Michelle did make some cryptic comments at the time.
“We bonded over our similar situation,” she told 9Honey. “He has offered his advice and support to me and I’m grateful to have met him.”
There you have it! MAFS is one big incestuous group exercise, and while it’s kinda weird, you have to admit it makes for damn good TV. I can’t wait to see this year’s couple swaps play out!
