In a recent interview, Married At First Sight (MAFS) alumnus Rachel Gilmore revealed that viewers on social media have been slinging her some nasty comments about her appearance, with some even coaxing her to lose weight.
Speaking to Mamamia, the 35-year-old says that while many fans were critical of the way women treated each other on this season of MAFS, the comments she’d seen on social media about her physical appearance have taken the cake.
“We have just watched a series of Married at First Sight, where women’s bad behaviour was on display, raw and honest, right? And then, [on social media], we have other women coming in and tearing women down further, but they [were] probably the first people to be sitting on that couch and being like, ‘that’s not okay. You can’t treat women like that,'” she said.
“‘Go on a diet, grieve yourself into a diet.’ I’m not here for it,” the ex-MAFS bride added, recalling some of the comments she’d seen online. “Two wrongs do not make a right,” she continued. “Constructive feedback, sure… but to come and put someone down because of their looks?”
MAFS’ Rachel says she was a victim of a ‘sad girl’ edit
Watching MAFS back, Rachel told the publication that she was pretty happy with how she was depicted. However, she was disappointed that she was mostly being shown through the lens of her relationship with Steven, with much of her true personality being left on the cutting room floor.
“I felt like I was shown to be this woman just begging for this man consistently,” she explained. “The show has definitely given me a different level of confidence, but I always carried myself with confidence. I always knew who I was. I feel like the storyline was building up for me to have my heart broken. That’s the ‘poor Rachel’ edit.”
“Heartbreak is sad, but it doesn’t define who I am. I’m not the girl who’s just continuously walking around with heartbreak.”
That being said, Rachel said that watching the show back reminded her of how much pain she was experiencing at the time. “That was a woman truly grieving. Watching it back, I started to grieve again. You’re grieving the life you’ve built up in your mind, the possibility of what this was. The love I had in my heart for Steven, the life we had spoken about and planned.”
Stream Married At First Sight Australia 2026 on 9Now.
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