It’s never quite a season of Married At First Sight (MAFS) without at least a dash of controversy.
And this year’s Aussie fill of the reality show has already served it up in platters.
Having only recently started airing in the UK, it’s been on TV Down Under for weeks now and there’s been backlash over the grooms, outrage over brides’ actions and reports of an ‘edited out’ couple.
Yep, apparently this year’s season as we know it is missing an entire couple despite them reportedly filming their wedding, honeymoon and some of the early stages of the experiment.
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In case you’re not entirely well-versed in the world of MAFS, it quite literally sees a pair of strangers get ‘married’.
They then go off on a romantic break together, move into a flat and then do different challenges, attend dinners and sit down with experts to develop their relationship.
While the show is popular over here, it’s a whole different beast in Australia. The press tend to report on the couples while it’s still filming and social media absolutely pops off.
And it seems to be this that led to Micah Lomu and Ankita Karungalekar being reportedly edited out of the show.
Dark allegations were made against the groom on social media during filming and began circulating. There are reports that Micah was accused of being violent towards an ex-partner.
The 28-year-old has denied these allegations and said that there was ‘no proof’ and had insisted MAFS producers instruct the accuser to go to the police in order to give him the opportunity to clear his name.
“They told me it was in my best interest to be dismissed from the show for my mental health,” Micah told Daily Mail Australia. “But by doing that, they practically gave validation that I'd done something wrong.”
As the groom says he felt as though he was ‘made a scapegoat’, Ankita said she was blindsided.
“We were shocked when Channel Nine said we couldn't handle the backlash,” the 29-year-old explained.
“That's not their decision to make. We went through all the psychological checks, hundreds of pages of paperwork, background vetting - and passed everything.
“Suddenly, they decided we weren't strong enough.”
The pair claim that they had bonded well on their honeymoon before suddenly being told they were not allowed to ‘have any contact’ with each other.
Micah was ‘devastated’ by the allegations and Ankita doesn’t understand why they weren’t given ‘second chances’.
“I lost the opportunity, but I also lost my marriage. I still feel married - and then they told me to pack my bags and leave. That hurts,” she added.
The LADbible Group has contacted Channel Nine and EndemolShine Australis for comment.
Topics: Married At First Sight, Australia, TV and Film
Jess Battison