Jacqui Burfoot has lifted the lid on what really goes on behind the scenes in MAFS. Photo / Nine AU
Jacqui Burfoot has lifted the lid on what really goes on behind the scenes in MAFS. Photo / Nine AU
Married At First Sight‘s Kiwi bride Jacqui Burfoot has lifted the lid on the show’s explosive dinner parties, revealing what the environment is really like backstage for the participants on the popular dating show.
Taking to TikTok, the controversial bride – who is href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/married-at-first-sight-australia-episode-14-recap-jacqui-and-ryans-marriage-falters-as-a-new-couple-weds/EEGT2GBQNBGDTDBBH4WBG4MGWE/" rel="" title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/married-at-first-sight-australia-episode-14-recap-jacqui-and-ryans-marriage-falters-as-a-new-couple-weds/EEGT2GBQNBGDTDBBH4WBG4MGWE/">paired with Ryan Donnelly on the show – posted sneaky behind-the-scenes footage of the cast from a dinner party yet to air in New Zealand, sitting apart after cameras stopped rolling.
MAFS producers would have viewers believe that once each couple arrives at a Sydney warehouse in Sydney’s Lilyfield for the dinner party, they enter the cocktail party straight away.
And after the cameras stop rolling, they are immediately chauffeured back home.
Not so, according to Burfoot’s footage of the cast backstage as she claims that certain rules were in place while they waited to be dismissed.
In the clip, most of the participants are sitting apart with Carina Mirabile looking cold while wrapped in the satin shawl of her billowing blue gown as her husband Paul Antoine sits metres away, joking with fellow groom Adrian Araouzou.
Meanwhile, further in the background, another groom, believed to be Dave Hand, appears distressed as he sits with his head in his hands looking at the concrete floor.
“What it was like backstage of a MAFS dinner party,” Burfoot captioned her video.
“Separated, not allowed to speak and babysat for hours without a phone. Usually in tents, this was around 3am after a [dinner party].”
The room featured in Burfoot’s video appears to be the same one that viewers see when a participant storms out of the dining room after a fiery confrontation of sorts.
It remains to be seen how Burfoot managed to sneak a phone backstage to film the video when a producer was nearby chatting with Antoine and Araouzou.
MAFS dinner parties are usually a fiery affair, but one bride has taken to TikTok to share their harsh realities. Photo / Nine AU
Previous MAFS stars have also come forward in the last few weeks to share their own experience at the infamous dinner parties.
Sara Mesa, who was matched with Tim Calwell on last year’s season, told Yahoo Lifestyle that the cast were holed up inside tents outside the warehouse for hours before they were given access to the building.
Inside the makeshift waiting rooms, none of the brides or grooms were allowed to use their phones, and were left to read magazines or take naps to pass the time.
“You’re sitting in a tent with a couple of magazines, like motorcycle magazines or home decor magazines, a couple of colouring books, an orange, an apple and a chocolate bar or something,” Mesa told the outlet. “And if you didn’t like your partner, you’re just sitting there like, ‘Oh my god.’”
“It could be hours, because a couple goes in probably [every] half an hour. They’re trying to get what they want out of each couple so until they get that, then they bring in the next couple. So it could be hours.”
Eden Harper, who also appeared on last year’s season, also shed some surprising details about the dinner parties, such as how “terrible” the food was.
“I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy. It was cold and there wasn’t enough of it,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.
