She may have been the victim to what she calls the “world’s worst stitch up” in the Married At First Sight‘s franchise but despite her disastrous pairing with on-screen husband Nasser Sultan, Gabrielle Bartlett is still a hopeless romantic at heart.
In fact, the 47-year-old is such a firm believer in love she’s decided to pursue a surprising new career path as a marriage celebrant.
“I’m so excited. I’ve got a full heart at the very thought of it,” the season five MAFS bride, who is also a trained actor and has previously worked in marketing, tells Now To Love in an exclusive interview.
“There’s nothing like being able to step inside a couple’s love bubble and help them create a milestone wedding that is personalised. That creative process is really exciting,” she adds of her new business, which is called Your Love Story By Gabrielle.
While she describes her time on MAFS as “traumatic”, one of the silver linings was hitting it off with her marriage celebrant Glen.
“Following MAFS, I became really good mates with the celebrant who married Nasser and I, which is so strange. He inspired me to do the course and begin my celebrant career. So I actually have MAFS to thank for something,” the Sydney-based local tells us of the serendipitous meeting.
“I’m finally open for business and I can’t wait to chat to people,” Gab exclaims, before adding she is also available to do baby naming ceremonies and vowel renewals.
Being around happy couples is a dream come true for the single mother, who admits she’s still hoping to meet The One.
“I’ve always had an unwavering faith in love. Even though I don’t have anyone special in my life right now, I know he’s out there somewhere and I believe in the right time, right place,” she tells us.
In 2018, her faith in love was put through the ultimate test when she was matched with personal trainer Nasser Sultan on the season five series of MAFS.
Despite initially hitting it off, the pair struggled to find an intimate spark before Nasser “friend-zoned” Gab. It was also revealed Nasser had a secret girlfriend during the entire filming of she show.
Reflecting on the “obvious stitch up” of her match, Gab says: “God knows we never would have worked out. Just to know you were set up from the beginning after investing so much was so disappointing.”
“Despite all of the thousands of questions and soul-searching I was asked to do about the type of person I wanted to meet, I now know that was completely pointless. It was the opposite of those qualities that I was matched with,” she claims of the show’s apparent matching-making skills.
At first Gabrielle and Nasser hit it off, but the pair soon headed south after the home stays.
(Image: Channel Nine)“It was tough being given that reassurance that you were going to be professionally matched with someone compatible to you, to learn that was all out the window. Then it was about learning to navigate your way out of what was a pretty traumatic experience.”
As for what Gab thinks of Nasser since his disastrous appearance on the MAFS Grand Reunion event, where he was finally called out by his fellow co-stars for his constant trolling of them?
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“It’s pretty hard to have a positive opinion about someone who was quite openly disingenuous about being on the show in the first place. He had a girlfriend at the time… I don’t want to see him say such cruel and nasty things about people for no reason, other than him thinking it would be funny. I think it’s quite telling of his character.
“It was good to see a more transparent account of exactly how Nasser is. He could have redeemed himself so very easily but I don’t think he has the capacity to understand how that would have served him,” the reality star says of his refusal to apologise to his cast mates.
Open for business: Gabrielle is excited to announce she is now a marriage celebrant.
(Image: Swopshots)Gab believes she wasn’t invited back to the All Stars reunion special because of her reluctance to “kick off with arguments or heavy opinions.”
As for her advice to the incoming cast of MAFS season eight, which premieres on February 22nd, the marriage celebrant laughs: “I would say that it is yet another season of Jerry Springer, so if you’re a fan of Jerry Springer, you’re going to love it.”
Before cautioning: “My advice would be to stay grounded, if you do go through trauma as a result, I’m pretty sure most people do, try and find some charities that are close to your heart and use that temporary platform to help some causes close to your heart. It’s healing and it’s helping at the same time.”
After previously working in marketing, the trained actor is pivoting to a new career path.
(Image: Instagram)Reflecting on her time on the show, the 47-year-old admits it took months to transition back to her normal life.
“I think people maybe had the assumption that I snapped back into my normal life and rolled on as usual. I didn’t! I had a process that I went through to transition back to life as normal. I invested time, effort and also money to be there.”
“It’s pretty hard to have a positive opinion about someone who was quite openly disingenuous about being on the show in the first place,” Gab says of her ex-husband Nasser.
(Image: Channel Nine)
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