You know what time it is? It’s time for another juicy episode of MAFS: After The Dinner Party.
Hosted by Laura Byrne, Brittany Hockley and Jules Lund, it’s the series that takes us behind the scenes on Married At First Sight through exclusive interviews with the cast, unseen footage and to-the-point discussion.
After a particularly dramatic week on MAFS, the gang did not hold back, sharing some of the most revealing unseen footage we’ve had on the show yet.
This week on the ouch-couch, the hosts are joined by Stella, Scott, Joel, Sam and couple Alissa and David.
So, let’s get into the drama, shall we?
A touching tribute to Mel Shilling
On Friday last week, expert Mel Shilling made a tragic update about her health. Taking to Instagram, she revealed that her cancer had spread to her brain and she has been told that there is “nothing further they can do”.
This week on MAFS: After The Dinner Party, the hosts paid tribute to Mel, calling out what an important part of the MAFS team she is and sent their love to her, and her family.
Fellow expert John Aiken — who has worked along side Mel for more than a decade — also shared a heartfelt video message from overseas.
“Since Mel made her announcement, MAFS fans across the world have come together in a way that has been truly moving,” he explained.
“The incredible outpouring of love and support from every corner of the globe is a testament to the woman that we all know and admire. I’m here in the UK stepping in to support the team on Married At First Sight but like all of you, my heart is with our dear colleague and friend as she focuses on her health. To us, Mel isn’t just a colleague, she’s family.”
Alissa says the texts were “way worse” than we saw
After the commitment ceremony, Juliette sent Alissa screenshots of the texts. During the dinner party, Alissa read out some of the obscene things said by both Bec and Gia.
When asked by Laura whether we saw the true extent of the messages on the show, Alissa said they were “way worse”.
“This was after the commitment ceremony, and I received the messages. I just remember laying there, and I was next to David and I couldn’t believe it,” Alissa said.
“The most vicious, vile things. You wouldn’t even say this to someone’s face, let alone put it in a message.
Throughout the experiment, we’ve seen Bec apologise time after time, however Alissa and David are done with her apologies.
“I don’t think you can come back from that,” Alissa quips.
Joel admits that he knew about the screenshots
While the screenshots were the biggest secret of the night, Joel was quick to admit that he knew about them before the dinner party. As a result, it wasn’t long until Jules called him out for being a “coward” and, as Brittany so aptly put it, a “pussy”.
Even David and Alissa were surprised that Joel didn’t reveal the screenshot gossip — especially when he was a “good friend of David’s”.
However, Joel claims that the night before the commitment ceremony, Gia snuck into their room to plot how they would dish out the screenshots.
“They were planning it,” Joel claims. “I was right in the middle of this evil scheme being hatched, okay? I’m just a bystander at this point.”
Joel says that Gia roped him in by saying that he had to stick up for Juliette when this went down. While he told Juliette he would back her, he said that he didn’t specify what he would back her on.
“You didn’t put a pin in it,” Brittany explains. “You had a choice where you could say ‘hey actually i’m not going to condone this pre-meditated attack on somebody that’s copped it the entire time.”
“It wasn’t my place. I didn’t want to get involved,” Joel responds, before being called out by the hosts for his lack of action.
“All roads lead to the dark lord Gia,” Joel quipped.
Unseen footage: Gia’s manipulation
The beauty of MAFS: After The Dinner Party is the unaired footage. This time around, the hosts walk us through four separate clips that paint a very clear picture of Gia’s manipulation. In the first clip, Gia is heard on mic telling Juliette to leak screenshots of a chat between her and Bec to deflect heat from when she dropped the c-word herself.
Then, in the next, Gia is heard warning Bec about how Juliette is going to bring out the texts. She then lied to Juliette about how Bec found out about the screenshots, telling her that it was a production spill to cover her tracks.
Gia then told Chris not to back Juliette because it was a “losing battle” and she was “leaving anyway”.
After watching the clips, Joel was dumbfounded.
“Gia was in the apartment saying ‘Joel you need to defend Juliette’ because she wanted me to do her dirty work,” Joel exclaimed. “But I ain’t a brainless minion, Gia, I see right through you.”
“Did you tell her off though?” questioned David.
“No but when it came couch, I said the truth and I didn’t back her up,” replied Joel.
Joel wrote stay
After Juliette walked out on the commitment ceremony, we never got to find out whether Joel had written stay or leave. On After The Dinner Party, he says he wrote stay, surprising the whole panel.
“For me, you’re writing your decision based on what has happened since the last commitment ceremony. I gave her a one strike policy that if she disrespected me again, that was it. And she didn’t do that,” Joel said.
While the others questioned why Joel was okay with Juliette’s behaviour, he said that she didn’t do anything to him directly that crossed lines.
“All I was doing was basing that decision on what went down in the last week between me and her,” he claimed.
Unseen footage: Chris mocks Sam
On MAFS, Chris and Sam are currently going through a bit of a rough patch. When Sam joined the hosts on the couch, they played him some unseen footage of Chris and Gia after the dinner party. In the clip, Chris says that Sam just lost “the best thing that ever happened to you” and claimed that he apologised five times. Chris then began mocking Sam about living with housemates and claiming that he “loves coupons”.
“Sorry that I do facilitate that lifestyle, that I do have a farm, that I do have a property in Sydney. I’m sorry babe, you share accommodation with three other people and you don’t pay for dinner. I’ve paid for every f**king dinner,” Chris says.
“Sorry if you’re successful why are you living in shared accommodation with multiple people,” Gia adds.
“He was all about coupons, too,” Chris quips.
Sam was visibly hurt by this clip.
“It’s just bullshit,” Sam said, explaining that he would buy the food for the house and then Chris would pay for a dinner out once a week.
“The fact that we’re even having to defend that is ridiculous. I live with my best friend at home. It’s not a share house accommodation,” he continued.
“I just think Chris can’t be wrong. He can’t be called out for his behaviour and the first bit of feedback or tough conversation. What hurts about all this is that we were at a highlight, we’d just started being intimate and I just don’t think Chris understands how this hurt me or how it made me feel at all.”
Scott reveals how he feels about Gia’s new boyfriend
Although MAFS is still on air, Gia has announced that she’s moved on with a new man after the experiment. In some pap pics released to Woman’s Day, Gia revealed that she’s dating reality star Alan Wallace.
“I’m pissed because I hate spoilers,” Jules says. “Surely doing that ruins it for fans of the show that want to play along.”
“At the end of the day, I’m just highly disappointed in what Gia has done,” Scott says.
“We were away for three months – put our life on hold to try and fall in love and not spoil anything, and the fact that she’s gone behind everyone’s back is just a disappointment. I’m embarrassed by her, to be honest.”
For Scott, it wasn’t just about Gia shattering the illusion with the pap pics — it was that their relationship was real.
“It was so bloody real, and I get upset because I was so invested in her at the time, so what everyone is seeing is real,” he explained.
“I know she was head over heels for me, and it was not that long ago, so how can you fall in love again that quick to be honest.”
Getting emotional, Scott reflected on their times together as a couple.
“When I go in, I give them my world,” Scott shares.
“I would sit with her from 5am while she got hair and makeup done before dinner parties, I would take her away every weekend, he would never let her pay for a cent, I would just nurture her. She would just go off at me for nothing, and I would say it’s okay. I just copped so much sh*t. I tried so hard to make it work because I just see the good in everyone, no matter how bad they can be, I just tried.”
Unseen footage: The awful names Gia called Stella
This week, Stella joined Scott and the hosts on the couch. Scott revealed that he wasn’t allowed to talk with women like Stella in the experiment because Gia would perceive it as Scott flirting with them.
In some unseen footage, it showed Gia quiz Scott after he got back from the couple swap challenge.
“How was it with the girl that flirts with my man? How was it?” she asked a very shocked-looking Scott.
“She wasn’t flirting,” Scott replies, confused by Gia’s aggression towards Stella.
When asked by a producer whether she has a problem with her Gia replied: “I don’t have beef with Stella, but I’ve never addressed that she has flirted with Scott here and there, and she did call me a ‘dog’ a few times.”
Well, that’s all the biggest bombshells from this week!
You can watch all the MAFS: After The Dinner Party episodes on Stan or Married At First Sight on Nine or 9Now.
