Every single one of the cast members on Married at First Sight (MAFS) 2026 has walked down the aisle of their own wedding, but are the marriages actually legal or just commitment ceremonies?
In Australia, couples must lodge a Notice of Intended Marriage at least a month before tying the knot. Since the MAFS experiment runs for around two months, it would technically be possible to legally wed. But, fortunately for doomed couples like Joel and Juliette and Tyson and Stephanie, the MAFS weddings aren’t legal and are simply ceremonies created for the show.
“They are not legal,” Alissa Fay explained in an interview with Chattr. “It’s going in and giving the experiment a good crack. But, there’s nothing legal or binding you two together. It’s just a beautiful wedding — It’s like a real wedding day. It feels like a real wedding day. But no, you’re not signing your life away and your assets away and everything.”
Sam Stanton, who married cowboy Chris Robinson in a mid-season garden wedding as an intruder, said that while the weddings aren’t legal, it mimics the exact concept.
“There is no legality to the wedding. It’s not a legal marriage, but it’s, it’s a real commitment to each other. You’re committing to moving into each other and like giving it a red-hot crack. So, it’s like the concept of marriage,” he told Chattr.
Gia Fleur said that fans are questioning online how she married Scott McCristal, considering he’s reportedly only separated from his ex-wife outside of the experiment.
“Everybody is like ‘Oh, Scott was already married’, but I’m like, we weren’t even legally married ourselves! None of us get legally married. Thank God, honestly or there would be a lot of divorces right now,” she laughed, adding there’s “no document signing, nothing at all.”
One international season of MAFS has legally binding weddings
While the weddings on MAFS Australia aren’t legally recognised, every couple on Season One of the New Zealand version actually tied the knot for real.
Yep, four couples who’d never met before the show got legally married on TV. Of those couples, only one is still together: Angel and Brett.
Since then, MAFS NZ has changed its format and removed the legal marriages, with couples now taking part in simple commitment ceremonies for the show.
Married at First Sight (MAFS) 2026 airs Sunday – Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
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