Married At First Sight (MAFS) has just brought back one of its most divisive tasks in history: the partner swap. While the episode featured a treasure trove of drama, it’s the discourse between Carina Mirabile, Paul Antoine and Awhina Rutene that has fans reeling.
This article contains Married At First Sight spoilers. It’s up to you if you wanna stay or leave.
Yep, you read that right. After weeks upon weeks of chaos involving runaway grooms, shitty remarks about people’s appearances and concerning behaviour, the masterminds behind MAFS have decided to bring back the controversial partner swap for Feedback Week.
While the challenge can bring SOME beauty — like 2024’s Duncan James and Evelyn Ellis — it 100 per cent brings out the ugly in some of the show’s strongest couples.
Exhibit A: Carina and Paul.
To give you the world’s quickest recap (I’ll try), Carina got upset when it was revealed that Paul would be partnering with Awhina. Why? It turns out that Paul had a fling with Awhina’s twin sister, Cleo Rutene.
When asked about this history, Awhina paid it no biggie as she and Paul have grown to become friends on the show.
“It is a bit odd. He and my twin sister have a bit of history prior to this experience, but they’re from Perth and they were very casual a couple of years ago. It was very short-lived,” Awhina shared.
“I feel like it will be a breeze for me.”
In a voxie, Carina explained she was concerned with Awhina “moving into [their] apartment and sleeping with her husband” because she looks like Cleo.
When it was time for Awhina to move into the apartment, Carina was already in tears over the partner swap, citing that loyalty is extremely important to her.
As soon as Awhina walked in, she immediately comforted Carina who was in tears on their apartment couch. Awhina then attempted to cheer Carina up by explaining that her husband, Adrian Araouzou, kicked her out of the apartment.
But what was extra awkies was that Paul accidentally called Awhina “Cleo” during a voxie. YIKES.
Before Carina left, she and Awhina had a conversation where she said it would’ve been “fine” if it was one night.
“One night, it’s fine. A sleepover? No worries,” Carina cried.
In a voxie, Awhina said she “understands” where Carina’s concerns are. However, she was used to being “in relationships where [her] partner worked away”.
Following Awhina’s move-in, Carina requested a “temporary room” where she took time to decide if she was going to participate in the partner swap.
“I wouldn’t be doing this in the outside world. Like you don’t sleep, do sleepovers,” Carina cried.
“I trust him a lot but this doesn’t sit right in my gut. Like, I feel off about it.”
Fast forward through the episode, Carina eventually agreed to participate in the experiment, swapping out Paul for Teejay Halkias.
Following the switch-a-roo, the new couples were handed their first Feedback Week challenge which was the “Hard Hitting Questions” task.
To give you a bit of context if you haven’t followed along with the season from day dot, Paul and Carina — despite their previous controversies — are arguably one of this year’s strongest couples.
Heck even Awhina said, “I think Carina and Paul are one of the strongest couples here through this entire experiment.”
“I’m interested to see Paul voicing his concerns,” Awhina continued.
And my god it was interesting to hear what Paul had to say about his “strong” relationship with Carina.
During the task, Paul asked Awhina if she thought Carina — his on-screen wife — was a jealous person.
“It’s probably the one that worries me the most,” Paul began the gossip sesh.
“So, after seeing Carina’s reactions today about moving us together, do you think she’s a jealous person and that this could be an issue in your relationship in the future and why?” he asked Awhina.
“I could see she was visibly upset, clearly,” Awhina replied.
“I didn’t know Carina, or anyone really, would feel uncomfortable with someone, a female, coming into the apartment for three days with their partner.”
When Awhina told producers she couldn’t understand why Carina would be jealous of her, Paul spilled the beans that Carina said she would’ve been comfortable he swapped with any other bride but Awhina due to his history with Cleo.
“Hearing him say that, it definitely frustrated me. We’re friends,” Awhina said in the piece to camera.
“I thought we were in the same place. And also twins aren’t the same people… Cleo and I are so different.”
The next morning, the participants were handed a second challenge, where they were tasked with writing a letter revealing a concern they had yet to address in their relationship.
Continuing from the previous night, Paul revealed to Awhina that he is concerned that Carina is “a snob” after she allegedly commented about her twin’s “calibre”.
“I feel like she [Carina] is a bit of a snob sometimes and can come across as very judgy, and I’ll be honest with you, this is giving me the ick,” Paul tells Awhina.
“Now, when I told Carina the reason why I knew you, she made a comment about Cleo that sort of gave me the ick.
“She said, ‘I didn’t know you would go for that kind of calibre.’”
The comment immediately shook Awhina to the core — which is absolutely natural since they’re, you know, TWINS.
Towards the end of their spill sesh, Awhina got heated and stated that she was determined to hold Carina accountable for her comments about Cleo. AS SHE SHOULD.
“I’m really pissed off,” Awhina said.
“Carina and I had a good friendship. We were texting. We were supposed to go on a double date. So, to know she’s made calibre comments about my twin sister, which extends to me, that is so wrong. Trust me, I’m not gonna let her get away with it.”
Redditors react to Married At First Sight‘s Paul Antoine’s scathing confession about Carina Mirabile
Following Paul’s juicy revelation, fans took to the r/MAFSAU Reddit thread to share their reactions regarding Carina’s alleged comments about Awhina’s twin sister, Cleo.
“Now, it makes sense why she was friends with Lauren [Hall],” one person wrote.
“CHRIST what the fuck possessed Carina to say that about Cleo,” another Redditor commented.
“‘I didn’t know you would go for that kind of calibre’… So then, maybe Carina’s not that unlike Lauren at all,” a third wrote.
Other Redditors also called out Paul for overusing the word “ick” and accused the controversial groom of trying to purposely stir drama between Carina and Awhina.
“Imagine outing your wife like that,” one MAFS Redditor wrote.
“Paul doing his best to deliberately drive a wedge between Carina and Awhina is unnerving to witness,” another person commented.
Honestly, at this rate, I believe that Rhi Disljenkovic and Jeff Gobbels are the only couple making out of this season.
Married At First Sight returns tomorrow on Channel Nine and 9Now.
