While Sierah Swepstone may have left Married At First Sight (MAFS) 2025 with regrets after her marriage to Billy Belcher came crashing down, her former friend and MAFS co-star Awhina Rutene has revealed to Chattr that Sierah’s intentions regarding staying in the experiment may not have been completely pure.
The two brides became friends on the show, but things swiftly fell apart when Sierah revealed her secret bond with Awhina’s husband Adrian Araouzou, which involved the two catching up one-on-one and having at least two “secret” dinners together.
While Sierah admitted at the last commitment ceremony that she found it easier to open up to Adrian than she did with her partner Billy, Adrian refuted that by saying he felt closer to Awhina compared to Sierah.
Now Awhina has weighed in on the complicated matter, telling Chattr that Sierah had a “strong interest” in Adrian and she also dropped a shocking revelation about Sierah’s intentions.
MAFS’ Awhina reveals Sierah’s rogue request
While Billy was the first one to make a comment about a partner swap, something Sierah said upset her, Awhina told Chattr that Sierah wanted to re-enter the experiment… with Adrian.
“I don’t want to comment too much on it, but I know that Sierah did ask to come back into the experiment with Adrian, but Adrian said no,” Awhina said.
“I do know there was definitely a strong interest in Adrian on Sierah’s end. I think that deep down, Adrian had an attraction to Sierah as well,” she continued. “I mean, you put a bunch of single people in an environment, you’re going to be attracted to different people. I don’t judge people for that. It’s just how you behave or how you act on those attractions.”
Awhina on Sierah’s regret leaving MAFS
Sierah confused her co-stars and the MAFS experts when she opted to leave the experiment at the last commitment ceremony, before saying she regretted writing ‘leave’.
“There was real conviction in her writing leave. [Then] when she turned and Billy had done the same thing, that’s kind of when everything dropped, like the, ‘Oh no, we can probably recover things,’ and I was like ‘What is going on?!'” Awhina said.
“The moment she saw Billy’s ‘leave’, that’s when she changed her mind. I don’t think she expected it,” Awhina continued. “I think when people enter an experiment with the wrong reasons or wrong intentions, naturally, you assume your partner does as well. So if you’re planning to ride it to the end for the wrong reasons, then you’re going to assume the other person next to you will, too.
“So I think her assumption was that Billy’s going to say stay because he’s here for the wrong reasons. I don’t think she expected him to be like, this isn’t worth my time, and you’re not my person.”
Awhina says friendship with Sierah will ‘never recover’
Delving more into the mess, Awhina said she was just looking forward to moving on after Sierah left MAFS.
“When she exited the experiment, it was kind of like, okay, that chapter is closed,” she said. “Unfortunately, our friendship will never recover from what had happened. I just wanted to move forward. But I will say one thing: she left the experiment, but it didn’t feel like she had left because she was still reaching out to people within the experiment, which was upsetting because I wasn’t doing the same.”
Is this all a hint that Awhina will also be leaving soon? Look, tbh, we hope she gets out ASAP.
Married At First Sight 2025 airs Sundays at 7pm and Monday – Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
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