It has been a week from hell for Married At First Sight as the show’s contestants have gone rogue, dropping spoilers and repulsing viewers.
Channel 9 bosses must surely be reeling after the current crop of contestants have made it clear they won’t be gagged by their nondisclosure agreements and are happy to not only publicly diss the program but also ruin it for fans.
Here’s a look back at this week’s most shocking MAFS revelations.
MIKEY SPILLS ON HIS ONE NIGHT STAND
On screen, Mikey and Tash are continuing to work on their relationship after a tumultuous couple of weeks.
But on Monday, Mikey not only publicly revealed that his relationship with Tash didn’t work out, but also claimed that he later hooked up with fellow contestant, Stacey.
“I can confirm we (Stacey) did have sex, but it was clearly after Natasha and I had agreed with producers that our relationship was over, and Natasha knew we weren’t together,” Mikey told news.com.au on Monday.
Stacey hit back at Mikey’s claim in an interview with Kyle and Jackie O, saying, “I did not hook up with Mikey.
“He looks like he could be my son. I’m sorry, he’s not my type,” she said.
DAVID’S TELL ALL INTERVIEW
On Tuesday night, David made a number of explosive claims about MAFS during an interview on news.com.au’s podcast, Not Here To Make Friends.
David, who is matched with Hayley on the show, slammed the show’s three “experts” and implied they are nothing more than paid actors.
“Guys, the experts don’t speak for themselves,” he said on the podcast.
“They have an (earpiece) in their ear, and we can hear, because it’s so silent on set. We can actually hear people feeding them lines.
“They’ll sit there with earwigs (earpieces) in their ear and completely stop production, and then they’ll say something. What you see is maybe a couple of minutes of it – but we’ve been sitting there for 40 minutes.”
David also confirmed on Not Here To Make Friends that his relationship with Hayley didn’t work out and claimed he begged producers to let him quit the show.
“They wouldn’t let me,” David said. “The truth was that I was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
“I’d been spoken to and treated like a piece of sh*t for seven weeks, so I made a deal with the executive producer that no matter what (Hayley) wrote, I’d get to go home. And they were the terms I agreed to stay.”
RELATED: Read all of James Weir’s MAFS recaps here
RELATED: NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS: Listen to James Weir’s podcast
HAYLEY RUINS NINE’S BIG TEASE CAMPAIGN
Channel 9 is really pumping up this Sunday and Monday’s episodes of MAFS, selling it in promos as “the two biggest nights of the experiment”.
A teaser clip posted online by Channel 9 shows relationship expert John Aiken saying at this Sunday’s commitment ceremony: “This relationship so clearly beyond repair. This is a decision that we don’t take lightly. For the first time ever, both of you now will leave the experiment.”
The promo obviously doesn’t make it clear which couple is leaving, with Nine hoping viewers will tune in to Sunday night’s episode to find out.
But then Hayley Vernon came out and spoiled the result.
During an interview with Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Byron this week, Hayley revealed that it’s her and her TV hubby, David Cannon, that get removed from the show on Sunday.
“It’s a bit controversial what happens,” Hayley told the radio hosts. “I write ‘stay’ (at the commitment ceremony) but for the first time in the show’s history they kick us off.”
Hayley said they were kicked off because “David has a whinge”.
“David made a deal with production that no matter what I wrote, that they would let him leave,” she said on Fox FM.
Oh, and Hayley also revealed that she returns to the show later in the season. So there’s another spoiler.
VANESSA’S SHOCK CLAIMS ABOUT CHRIS
Vanessa and Chris seemed like the most normal couple on the show, albeit a tad boring.
They quit the show earlier this week with the pair coming to the conclusion on screen that their relationship wasn’t working.
But the morning after her exit episode aired, Vanessa gave a radio interview and made a series of damaging claims about her TV husband and why she really quit the show.
“The real reason I left obviously is not going to be aired,” Vanessa told Hit FM’s Get Up With Krysti & Bodge.
Vanessa claimed that Chris was “abusive” towards her and that she was “scared” of him.
“It all came to a crumble the night of the lunch (which aired on Tuesday night),” she said. “Chris went out with his family and partied and stuff and he came home and was quite abusive to me, to the point where I hid in the bathroom from him. That’s how dramatic that night was for me.”
Vanessa hinted at an incident that took place between her and Chris and without giving too many details, she suggested that was why she quit the show.
“The producers came up to me after they heard what happened and I said to them, ‘I want to leave. There’s nothing that can keep me here. I need to go home for me.’ They went back, they thought about it and they came back and said, ‘We booked you a ticket,’” she said.
In response, Chris denied any wrongdoing and told news.com.au: “There’s gonna be a few things that come out that are gonna hold her (Vanessa) accountable for, things that she said. Obviously I’m just waiting for the right time.”
TOILETGATE
This week we saw one of the lowest acts in MAFS history play out on TV.
If you thought the wine throwing incident from last year was bad, this was worse, way worse.
After David discovered that Hayley had kissed Michael during a boozy night out, he grabbed Hayley’s toothbrush and used it to clean faeces off a toilet bowl.
Hayley admitted in the episode that she unknowingly used the toothbrush after David’s sick act of revenge.
“I’m ashamed of myself,” David said about the incident on the Not Here To Make Friends podcast. “I regret it now because I’ve lowered myself to her level.”
The victim of the prank, Hayley, later told Mamamia that she considered going to police to report David’s vile act but was encouraged not to by the show.
“That’s one of my biggest regrets,” she said. “I got told not to go to the police, that production would deal with it. I really should have,” she said.
MAFS has long been considered a low brow, grubby show, but Toiletgate plummeted it to an even lower level.
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
Regardless of the contestants’ blatant disregard for their nondisclosure agreements, this series of MAFS continues to be a ratings winner for Channel 9.
The show continues this Sunday night at 7pm, and more than 1 million will no doubt tune in even though we know Hayley and David are going to get kicked off the show.
Watch Not Here To Make Friends live every Sunday and Wednesday straight after MAFS, when James Weir is joined by guests live on Facebook and news.com.au, discussing the couples’ ups, downs, sideways, pimples, pashing and misjudged PDAs.
The podcast will be available on news.com.au, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all the usual suspects straight after the live stream.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7HWrGWcp51jrrZ7xKernqqklravucSnq2ispmS%2Fpq3LoquyZaSrfK6t0augnpxdlsFussirqq1lo560qcCOppirqpmasW6t02adoqqjqXq0tcahq2ahnaW5sLDErGSaq12YvK%2FAxKyrmqakqHqou4yrpqCtlWKur7CMrKeooZxiwKm71milnq%2BjYsC1u9GyZmtsZJqGeIKPnJtynmibf3KvlZ2dbGxlbINyfpNunWxp