I’m Sick Of MAFS Always Protecting The Men

I shouldn't be surprised, but this year, Married At First Sight (MAFS) 2026 has mostly been about how the men are victims. From scenes that were cut from the show to the choice of music, it's not hard to manipulate audiences into believing one story as gospel. We saw it last year with Eliot Donovan, who was given a redemption arc at the expense of bride Veronica Cloherty. While we saw Veronica get exasperated and yell at Eliot, the context leading up to it was missing. In the same way, grooms Chris Nield, Luke Fourniotis and Grayson McIvor have all been lifted up via editing, even though a source tells Refinery29 Australia large context clues have been missing.

While Chris was originally enemy number one after his fat shaming comments during the start of MAFS, he was given a big redemption arc after bride Brook Crompton left him. Cue the sad music at the next Dinner Party, and long shots of him acting downcast in his voxxies. "I thought Chris didn't deserve Brook, but she doesn't deserve him!" one keyboard warrior commented. "Where is the apology to Chris?? Poor bugger," another asked.

But what viewers didn't see was producers leaving multiple scenes on the cutting room floor to suit an agenda. "We saw Brook yelling at Alissa [Fay], but what they conveniently left out was Chris also hurling verbal abuse at her," a source close to production says. "Chris' insults shocked me to my core, and I can't repeat the disgusting term he used. We were all surprised it wasn't shown. And at the Commitment Ceremony, Chris was told to apologise to Alissa, but he never did. We didn't see any of that, because it doesn't suit the narrative." And while bad behaviour should be called out — Brook has since issued a public apology for how she acted at that Dinner Party — Chris has seemingly got away scot-free.

An anonymous bride also tells me she saw this coming from the beginning. While filming was still taking place, the experts did their first round of media, and the company line was that the women were feisty this year. Alessandra Rampolla also described the brides as "boss babes" in a pre-show interview with us. "They were sort of planting the seed for all of us, right? And then all the context is missing. It doesn't make any sense when we talk, it looks like we just get annoyed for no reason," the bride claims.

Another production insider believes only one woman will get a good edit this year, and it's not due to chance. "No drama series is going to be successful unless you have a protagonist and an antagonist. And they've put all the men in this protagonist box, and all the women are the antagonists," they say. "All the women are evil, all the men are just trying to do their own thing. The only person that's going to come out looking okay is Stella, and that's because she followed their game and they're trying to sell a romance story with her and Filip."

Mel Akbay and Luke have now left the experiment, but people are still sending hate the bride's way. Luke has been praised for his behaviour, and is even tipped to be joining Farmer Wants A Wife. But the way the experts reacted to a groom who had the same issue as Mel was completely different. "Tyson [Gordon] said to John, 'I'm not attracted to Stephanie [Marshall]. This isn't what I want'. And I remember John turning around and saying, 'You know what, Tyson, you know, I've got to commend you. You're honest about your feelings, you're upfront about what you want'," the insider recalls. "But when it came to Mel and Julia being upfront about not wanting Luke or Grayson, they were told off for not trying hard enough. Why is it one rule for men, and another for women?"

Julia previously told R29 she found the experience "difficult" and claimed large parts of her story were also cut out in her onscreen husband Grayson's favour. "My friends and family have been so incredibly supportive. They know who I am, and they're so disappointed in this one-sided version that we're seeing," she said. When the bisexual bride told Grayson and the experts she didn't feel a connection with her groom, he decided it was because of her sexuality. "Suggesting that because I wasn't interested in this one man, therefore I must be a lesbian, it's a cop out, and it feels really harmful," Julia said. By having Grayson reiterate this theory through voxies and on the Commitment Ceremony couch, along with the experts grilling Julia on it, the damage has been done. Scroll through any comment section, and you'll see strangers dissecting the bride's sexual preferences and reducing her down to a stereotype. It's garnering empathy for Grayson at Julia's expense.

According to my source, the experts call out the women's behaviour across the series at the reunion. "The experts say, 'You should be ashamed of yourselves', before playing back all the footage of the women fighting. They specifically call out anybody who didn't speak up, labelling the quiet women 'sheep' for not stepping in. But what about all the men who were sheep? All the men sat there in silence, too," the insider says. "No one can win."

Research for a BBC Panorama episode showed that women on reality TV were often attacked more online than their male counterparts. In 2021, 26% of tweets naming a female Love Island star were classified as abusive, in comparison to 14% of those aimed at a male contestant. It's a combination of the patriarchal society we live in, along with those working behind the scenes trying to get the biggest rise out of the audience. It's easy to hate women. It's not easy to protect them. But it's time for something to change.