Bride kicked off MAFS 2026 suffered huge losses: 'Hurt me a fair bit'

For sports presenter Ankita Karungalekar, Married At First Sight (MAFS) 2026 was supposed to be a dream. She took time away from her cricket presenting career, spent over $6000 of her own money, and “sacrificed” a great deal in her South Asian community and with her family to be on the show. After being married to her new husband, Micah Lomu, for a week, the groom was hit by allegations from TikToker Monica (@mondrof), which led to the pair being kicked off the show.

For Ankita, she expected to be paired with a backup groom (like Eliot Donovan and Lauren Hall), but once the couple was cut from the show on the day of the first Dinner Party, the rest of the cast were told never to mention Ankita and Micah again.

“When we got kicked out, Micah and I were [adamant] that I should be rematched. And I did speak to producers about it,” Ankita tells Chattr. “I deserve an opportunity to come back on the show because I have nothing to do with his past… especially being the only diverse girl on the show.”

Ankita wonders if her cultural background had any influence on the decision to avoid rematching her, asking an important question: what’s the difference between her, Eliot and Jessika Power? “I felt like I was the easy target to get rid of on the show, because there’s not much backup. Because I think at the end of the day, I feel like there was a bit of racial grief here,” she claims. “I think if I [were] in their shoes, I wouldn’t take out the only [woman of colour] on the show.”

The former MAFS bride also felt a sense of loss, because she had given up so much to be on the show. It was difficult to convince her parents to get on board with her decision. “The shame that comes along with it in the South Asian community… as someone who’s not from this country or even the Western side of the world, it’s not easy for me to convince my community and my parents, and I did sacrifice that at first, the relationship that I have with them,” Ankita says.

“When the news broke about me getting kicked out of the show, I actually didn’t have anyone to go back to, because my parents were just already pissed.”

The most hurtful part for the sports presenter was that it wasn’t actually her fault, yet she was somehow being punished.

MAFS’ Ankita Karungalekar reveals financial losses

In addition to all the emotional turmoil, MAFS bride Ankita turned down work as a cricket presenter for four months and sunk lots of money into Dinner Party outfits, which she didn’t get to wear.

“Summer of Cricket was approaching, and I did have a couple of things going on for myself, but I gave up those things because I had to commit full time [for] four months to MAFS,” Ankita recalls. “When that didn’t work out… I did a couple of gigs, though, not as much as what I usually do. That did hurt me a fair bit.”

MAFS pays contestants weekly, and since Ankita was kicked off early, she says she only received one week of pay. “I was out of work after that for [about] a month… no pay for that. I didn’t get paid for anything at all, no compensation, no sort of apology or anything as such. The outfits, the money that I spent,” she claims.

“I think I invested around $6000 to $10,000 with this whole process,” she adds. “The food, the investment [in] clothing, just the suitcases, and you know… the work that I lost. It wasn’t really like a hole in my pocket, but I did feel it’s unfair.”

It’s unlikely we’re going to see Ankita on our screens when MAFS premieres in February, but it will be interesting to see what other info drops. According to the star, she’s still in touch with the other cast members and “everyone reached out” to her when she was removed.