This year’s Married At First Sight (MAFS) cast has had more secret past relationships than any group in the show’s 12-season history.
Some of these dates and former relationships were included as plot points in the show. Rhi Disljenkovic and Jeff Gobbells being matched after their first attempt at a brief relationship, has become the cornerstone of their on-screen love story. Meanwhile, Carina Miribile being ghosted after one date with Paul Antoine couldn’t be ignored when she (rightfully) was disappointed to see she was matched with him at their wedding.
However, more stories of dates, connections and trysts between cast mates and their loved ones have been uncovered as the season progressed without getting any airtime on the show.
Just this week, Jamie Marinos revealed that her MAFS hubby Dave Hand went on a date with 2025 bride Sierrah Swepstone six years ago. When the intruders entered the experiment, it was revealed that Jamie had once hooked up with Teejay Halkias when they were teens.
Then, during the partner swap challenge, it was revealed that Paul once had a whirlwind romance with Awhina Rutene‘s sister Cleo.
Although the cast have said they were upfront about all the coincidental pre-show connections, folks online began theorising that the show was trying to bury the truth to keep the premise of the show alive.
However, according to former MAFS post-producer and podcaster Alexandria Funnell, there’s a much simpler reason behind why these stories haven’t been shared on the show.
“It’s not a manipulative thing. From a producer’s perspective, if there’s no footage of it, then is it really a story?” Alexandria asks.
“You’ve got to show it to tell it. So if those angles that happen off camera were to be covered, it would just be people talking to the camera explaining the situation. There’s no actual footage to back up what is being said.”
Alexandria says that often storylines do get cut if it didn’t happen within the MAFS time period or wasn’t captured on camera just because it’s a much more difficult — and honestly boring — story to tell.
“From an entertainment perspective, is it really interesting to just have two people sitting there doing voxies, saying ‘then I dated him, and I dated him, and I dated him’ without actual footage of it? So things just get cut because you can’t cover everything,” the That’s Showbiz Baby! podcast host continued.
“If it’s not on camera, it’s just too hard. So it’s not about protecting the brand or anything like that.”
Well, there you have it!
While I do love a bit of a MAFS conspiracy, it makes total sense why they’d cut these storylines out. Plus, it’s more fun finding it out through silly little articles, don’t you think? I know I do.
Plus, can you believe it? The MAFS final vows are finally happening next week. I can’t wait to see how many relationships will crumble and culminate with a juicy, dramatic speech.
Make sure to tune in to Married At First Sight on Nine or 9Now on Sunday for the next episode.
