Married At First Sight (MAFS) 2025 will be introducing a world-first challenge which sounds like it will cause some major drama. It takes place in the Final Test Week, where the MAFS cast will get the choice to meet with a backup partner to see if the grass is greener on the other side.
Chattr has the inside scoop about what happens and it sounds extremely messy. Plus, both Jamie Marinos and Beth Kelly have exclusively told us why they chose to take part.
There’ll be “fights, accusations of cheating and an explosive Dinner Party”, all before Final Vows.
Our source tells us the couples are all separated and given the challenge, letting them choose if they want to meet another match that the experts had lined up for them. Without being able to discuss it with their partners, the participants have to decide if they will go through with the date.
“The experts reveal that there’s more than one match out there, and asked if the contestants wanted to meet another person,” the insider spills.
“A lot of people took it as like, ‘Oh, we can meet someone who’s a potential match for us’, because Final Vows were right around the corner and you needed all the information possible to make sure you’re making the right decision.”
However, some participants considered it cheating, with Carina Mirabile left devastated when her husband Paul Antoine went on the date.
“Paul took up the challenge and Carina thought it was cheating, so she cried about it. This challenge basically broke up their relationship,” the source explains.
“Carina felt really uncomfortable, and she was saying at the Dinner Party, ‘How could you do this knowing how uncomfortable I was with the Couple Swap, and now you go and take up the challenge?’.”
Who else chooses to take up the MAFS ‘grass is greener’ challenge?
Awhina Rutene, Adrian Araouzou, Jacqui Burfoot and Ryan Donnelly also chose to meet their potential matches, but there was something odd about Adrian and Ryan’s alternative brides.
“Weirdly, Adrian and Ryan’s matches were both told to tell them that they were supposed to be the first choice brides on the show, but they couldn’t be there for filming because they were overseas,” the insider reveals.
“This raised suspicion as to whether or not these ‘matches’ were actually actors, or some of them were actors.”
There’s also going to be drama in Jacqui and Ryan’s relationship as well, as Ryan accuses Jacqui of cheating on him — even though he also took the chance to meet his potential match. Make it make sense?!
Chattr also heard that when Jamie took up the challenge, her potential match ghosted her, while strong couple Rhi Disljenkovic and Jeff Gobbels opted not to. Both Beth and Teejay Halkias met their alternative matches.
Beth regrets taking part in MAFS’ Final Test Week challenge
Beth opted to meet her backup match, and after the rocky relationship she’s been having with Teejay, nobody would blame her.
She tells Chattr she knew Teejay would go on his date, and that’s why she decided to go. Plus, she was “really hurt” by his past actions.
“I thought, well, you know what, Teejay doesn’t really seem like he wants me. It’d be stupid for me to sit here and not go and see my other potential match,” she explains.
“To be honest, I instantly regretted it. The whole time I was just thinking about Teejay and I was just thinking about how much better our banter was, how much more comfortable I felt around him than this new guy. My whole mind, the entire day, was on Teejay.”
She reveals that going on the date actually made her “feel worse”, because she was faced with the knowledge that she had really strong feelings for Teejay. And as we all know, his feelings aren’t as strong for her.
“I did regret going… I came home feeling even more sad, because it just made me realise that [the] connection I had to Teejay was a lot stronger than I maybe thought [previously],” she explains.
Jamie explains why she took up the ‘grass is greener’ challenge
At this stage, Jamie and Dave Hand‘s relationship is clearly on the rocks. The fact that she opts to meet her alternative match seems to make sense, but Jamie knows there could be some backlash.
“Some people aren’t going to agree with my decision,” Jamie tells Chattr.
“I was dealing with a lot of hurt [and] rejection and kind of losing hope, and I wanted to be able to remind myself why I was partnered with Dave.”
She reveals that she was wanting to get “clarity and encouragement” from the task, instead of looking to find a new partner.
“I didn’t go in with [the] intention of starting something with someone else. I was very clear in that, that’s not how I operate,” she explains.
Final Test Week and the MAFS Final Vows are going to be wild, folks!
Married At First Sight 2025 airs Sundays at 7pm and Monday – Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
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