Married At First Sight (MAFS) 2025 has just kicked off, and the off-screen tea is just as piping hot as the shitstorm we see on telly, and this time around, it’s got to do with the cast’s Instagram accounts.
When MAFS introduces us to a fresh batch of brides and grooms, most of us rush to their social media accounts to juice any piece of info we can on our new faves (or nays).
However, eagle-eyed podcast host Hannah Bowman has spotted something peculiar about the producer-controlled Instagram accounts this year.
Taking to TikTok, Bowman pointed out that Tim Gromie and Lauren Hall‘s Instagram do not match with the other MAFS 2025 castmates.
“I want to talk about the MAFS cast and their Instagram accounts, because this year, something weird is going on,” she began in her video, which now has clocked more than 167.1K views.
Bowman went on to explain that it was protocol for all MAFS contestants to hand over their social media to producers, who post snippets of their journey on the show as it airs on Nine.
Their Instagram bios are usually updated with a generic “Participant on MAFS 2025″ and a profile picture from their headshots on the show. While most of this year’s cast seemed to follow that set-up, Bowman noticed it was a different case for Tim and Lauren.
“So all of these people have done that. This is the MAFS account, and they’re following these people,” Bowman said, pointing out all the participants who’ve followed the protocol.
“But not everyone that’s on the show is there, which means not everyone has given their account over. So, before everything went down with Katie [Johnstone] and Tim, I took this screenshot. So Tim hadn’t given over his account.”
Tim has tried to make it seem like he’s given his account over to the producers by changing his profile picture and bio. However, perhaps anticipating the public’s negative, the Victorian primary school teacher has made his account private.
As for our trad-wife Lauren, the 2025 bride has made no interest in trying to appear as a castmate.
“She hasn’t even changed her bio, but she hasn’t handed over her password,” Bowman shared.
“I think these are the people that had a really negative filming experience and knew that they weren’t going to be on the show for long, or knew that they weren’t going to come across well, like, Tim hasn’t had a good time.
“Lauren’s husband’s like, ran off on her. So yeah, I feel like they’ve just like, denied their contract, or gone against their contract and decided not to hand over their Instagram accounts.”
Bowman’s stoonin’ observations come a week after Daily Mail Australia reported that both Tim and Lauren hadn’t handed over their social media to the MAFS overlords.
“Lauren feels like she wasted her time on this experiment,” a MAFS insider dished to the publication.
“She genuinely went on the show hoping to meet someone she wouldn’t come across in her usual circles, but she quickly realised the whole thing was a farce.
“She’s not about chasing clout like some of the others. And the experts? Don’t even get her started—they were just parroting whatever the producers fed them through an earpiece.”
As for Tim, the insider explained that he “felt completely betrayed by the so-called experts”.
“He poured his heart into the process, only to feel like the producers and experts set him up to fail.
“He didn’t even show up for publicity day — Channel Nine had to Photoshop an old image of him for his official portrait!”
According to the publication, DJ Morena Farina also refused to give her account up, but her run on the show — at the time of writing — seems to be smooth sailing.
As someone who’s watching the show closely, it makes me worried that we’re about to see some pure BS between Morena and her match, Tony Mojanovski. Please, for the love of God, protect this icon!
Married At First Sight returns tonight on Channel Nine and 9Now.
