As the latest season of Married at First Sight (MAFS) draws to a close, fans have taken to a Reddit thread to share their encounters with MAFS stars over the years, and boy was some tea spilt.
The array of stories began when a Reddit user shared that her sister recently flew from Sydney to Melbourne and was seated next to Martha Kalifatidis.
“They got to talking and she said that Martha was incredibly friendly, warm and down-to-earth. She spent the whole flight giving my sister tips about what to see/where to go in Melbourne and discussing her family and how she loved being a mum,” the person posted.
The user went on to ask people who they had met before and how they compared IRL vs. how they appeared on the show, so we’ve rounded up some of the best answers!
Please note some responses have been edited for length and clarity.
MAFS fan shares their nicest, funniest and weirdest IRL encounters with stars
“Jacqui [Burfoot]! She was my flatmate for a couple of years. She’s exactly as she appears on screen,” one person said. The former flatmate elaborated in the comments, saying, “It’s heavily edited, you can see it in the frankenbiting, but the content that she gives them to edit… Spot on.
“Her moods did change like that and the stuff she said was so perplexing. She never accepted fault for anything, always felt ‘sorry’ for us and offered unsolicited advice for how we could ‘be better’ at our jobs or in our relationships. If we ever stood up for ourselves she suddenly became the victim.”
Someone else on the thread said their partner had encountered Jacqui’s on-screen husband Ryan Donnelly.
“Ryan from this season goes to the same gym as my husband and they’ve had some small interactions. He said he’s nice but generally also as weird as he seems on the show,” they wrote. “He watched my husband pull his motorbike into a parking space and fuck up the angle, and when my husband had finished and turned the bike off, Ryan said, ‘Man it’s all just geometry!’ [and] laughed and then walked off haha.”
Other fans jumped in to share their meet and greets with some icons from previous seasons.
“I know Lucinda [Light] IRL. She’s as vibrant and amazing in person as she is on screen. I was very proud to see her on the show. Love her,” one person shared, with another saying, “Met Lucinda at a pub in Darwin! She was so, so lovely. My sister and I were wearing matching shirts, so she was telling us about how much she loves her own sister. Was truly magical.”
“I met Olivia [Frazer] in a pub once. She was actually quite friendly. I got the sense she was used to people being dicks to her in public, and because my friends and I were nice to her, she seemed appreciative and kept saying hi every time she walked past us again,” someone commented.
Someone else shared a story of another MAFS participant who suffered a rough edit: Alyssa Barmonde from Season 10. “She is so lovely and producers did her dirty. Literal sunshine. I still watch the show but question absolutely everything we see, they create entirely new characters out of most of these people,” they wrote.
“I went to primary school with Ella [Ding]. There weren’t many girls in our year, so we all knew each other quite well. She was just as kind as she was on the show,” another said.
Other stories shared got a little weirder.
“I met Michael Goonan from Season 7 at a nightclub in Brisbane back in 2021. He approached me and we had a quick chat. It was so obvious he was out on a prowl trying to hit up girls. He quickly lost interest as I didn’t know of his fame. I remember a girl walked past us and he followed her with his gaze and then just walked off after her trying to use his MAFS fame on a new chick. Weirdest encounter ever,” one person shared.
“Paul [Antoine]. He was dressed like he was the prince of Perth with his little posse. Honestly, his vibe didn’t seem like an approachable guy,” someone else shared.
“I met Mishel [Karen] at Melbourne sexpo. [She was] lovely, but after saying hi she’s like ‘hi hun what season of MAFS were you on?’ I think she was a bit lit lol,” another person remarked.
Want to CHATTR with us? Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok for more entertainment news.
