Two groom walkouts and a shocking one-on-one interview led to explosive scenes at the first Married At First Sight Australia dinner party of 2025, leaving one bride seemingly out of the experiment and another in tears.
Eliot, who left his bride Lauren just two days into the honeymoon, requested a sit-down with relationship expert John Aiken before the dinner party and it went as well as anyone expected it to go.
If there was ever a statement to prove how utterly delusional this man is, it was this:
“I was expecting to meet a cute sort of librarian girl that was maybe younger than me and I ended up with what felt like was a Kardashian sister.”
But Aiken has seen this before and recognised his subject’s “toxic patterns”, which were clearly on full display.
“You’re here on this show because you’re 35 and single and you’ve been going out with young women and it hasn’t worked,” he snapped back, calling him out on his superficial and unrealistic standards.
“I disagree with everything you said,” Eliot scoffed. “I know you do,” Aiken replied, and that was the last we saw of the runaway groom as Lauren turned up to the dinner party alone.
Another person who turned up to the party alone was Katie, who hadn’t seen her insufferable husband, Tim, since their disastrous honeymoon.
Revealing the pair’s turbulent start and Tim’s brutal “no spark” rejection, Katie was quickly comforted by the rest of the ladies in the experiment, who all seemed to be getting along swimmingly with their partners.
Eliot left Lauren in the middle of their Honeymoon, marking the first departure of MAFS Australia Season 12. Photo / Warner Bros. Discovery
But fiery-tongued Jamie was ready to give Tim a raking over the coals for his poor treatment of Katie, and sure enough she got her chance when he made a shock appearance.
“It feels like Tinder in real life and I’ve been swiped left,” Katie told her and the other ladies before her husband walked late through the door.
The experts, watching from a separate room, could only look in disgust as Tim continued to put his foot in his mouth at every opportunity he had.
“I’ve been the one making most of the effort,” he says while trying to change the subject to what the other couples were up to.
He even chimed in when Lauren mentioned her husband’s departure, telling Katie what an idiot Eliot was.
“That’s like the pot calling the kettle black,” Katie told producers while revealing she didn’t want the other couples to attack Tim.
Lauren then made a toast announcing her likely departure from the experiment, telling producers she was thankful she got to realise more about herself and how much better she could do than someone like Eliot.
