I think it’s pretty fair to say that Married at First Sight is that controversial reality show we can’t seem to not watch.
No matter how much we know about what goes on behind the scenes, or how clear it is that the “experts” have paired people for pure entertainment purposes, there’s something magnetic about relationship drama waiting to happen that we can’t ignore.
No matter what you say, you’re not immune. I know I’m certainly not. It’s taken me a few years to properly rip the MAFS bandaid off, but now, it’s never going back on. Until 2021’s Season 8 of MAFS, I’d been happy with YouTube videos of the dinner parties and half keeping up with who went home each week. But being in lockdown in Melbourne earlier this year gave me the perfect excuse to start from the beginning and get properly hooked.
And gosh, what a season to start at. But instead of re-hashing all of the insane sh*t that went down in the past, let’s focus on the present.
Bryce and Melissa have had a busy 24 hours after revealing the gender of their twins and bringing home a puppy, all on the same day.
Despite the gender reveal not going according to plan due to being stuck in Melbourne’s lockdown, they’re still completely ecstatic about welcoming two boys.
Actually, three boys, if you count Sonny the puppy.
“I’m excited to have two little soccer boys,” said Bryce. “Liss is excited, too, because we’ve heard from family, friends and even our obstetrician that having two boys is easier than having a boy and a girl in terms of appointments and bringing them up.”
In a cover story in Australia’s most popular supermarket queue magazine New Idea, Bryce and Melissa announced that they’re engaged and pregnant with twins.
Now look, our feelings about Bryce and Melissa are a bit mixed, which I think is pretty unanimous among the Australian audience that witnessed their marriage unfold on TV.
Many viewers (and other members of the MAFS experiment) accused Bryce of gaslighting and emotionally abusive behaviours, which were triggering and uncomfortable to watch.
During his time on MAFS, Bryce proved himself to be quite a divisive character by not thinking before he spoke and making some pretty poor choices with words and timing when addressing any issues he had.
During the airing of this last season of MAFS, The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) reported that it had received the most amount of complaints than ever before about the show and a petition started doing the rounds, demanding that Channel 9 take responsibility for the “triggering content” mostly related to Bryce and Melissa.
The call to action claimed that Melissa was “being subject to gaslighting, emotional manipulation, isolation, and countless other TEXTBOOK signs of a controlling and or abusive relationship” and although we can’t totally disagree that what we saw was unsettling, Melissa has been adamant that she is in love and Bryce is her forever.
And so far, they’ve proven nothing less. Since Season 8 of MAFS ended and Melissa said “I do” to a life with Bryce, they’ve been one of the most successful couples to come out of the experiment. They’ve been snapped looking cosy at public events, they’ve launched their own podcast called What Happens After… and now, they’re engaged and expecting twins.
“People saw on the show how loyal Mel was. I’m pleased to say that this has transitioned to the real world,” Bryce said in the interview with New Idea, saying that they’ve blossomed after the show, without any producers or editors around.
“We’re not doing this for anybody else – it’s about us, we’re cementing our love. Melissa deserves to be happy and apparently, I’m very good at that, so I’m looking forward to making it all official.”
As much as it’s difficult not to cringe a little at his wording (again), I’m still happy for them. We can’t judge a love story that isn’t our own and who are we to reject their word? They say they’re in love, they’re engaged to be re-married in a “proper” ceremony and they have two bubs on the way.
To have an opinion is one thing, and I think it’s important to talk about behaviours in relationships that concern us. Relationships that develop on-screen, whether it’s fictional or non-fictional, invite us to become invested and it can be difficult to remove ourselves and remember that we’re not the ones living in the relationship.
We may have opinions and they may be right or wrong, but at the end of the day, we can’t make the “right” decision for anyone but ourselves.
Things seem to be smooth sailing for the happy couple, with a family and a wedding in sight and surely, many more gossip magazine covers to grace.
We wish them all the best.
