There were plenty of feuds (and a handful of successful relationships) on the 2022 season of Married At First Sight, but what about friendships?
Which contestants managed to keep their bonds going beyond the experiment and which ones will “probably hate each other until we die” – let’s investigate.
With the contestants unable to control their own Instagram accounts right now due to Nine’s social media rules, we don’t really know how the stars feel about one-another!
But we have a few clues (and some intel from the contestants) about who is still in contact and who isn’t.
The reason the Nine Network is in control of the accounts right now is to protect contestants from bullying on social media, it’s a recent move many networks have adopted for the duration of reality TV shows.
As MAFS is still airing in the UK and the US, the stars have not been given back control of their accounts just yet.
However, they are now allowed to share some content with Nine that they would like to be posted on their platforms. While it may appear that they are back behind the social media wheel, it’s not true.
Ella and Domenica have remained “best friends” since the show.
(Image: Instagram)“Nine provides all participants with ongoing support for the duration of the show and we monitor all participant’s social media accounts so that we are aware of and manage any negative commentary,” a spokesperson told our sister site WHO in a statement of the rules.
But in the fresh content that is being shared, the stars have begun to show whether or not their friendships are going strong. They just can’t start any wars of words with one another… yet.
In an interview with WHO, Ella Ding revealed she considers Domenica one of her best friends after the show.
“Domenica, she’s one of my best friends. I’ve gained a true close friend out of this experiment; she always had my back and I always had hers. She’s always got everyone’s back but people misunderstand where she’s trying to come from,” Ella said.
“It’s the reason why we’ve all been put on this experiment, to talk about what’s going on, and Domenica would always be that person who was like let’s talk about it – but some people would take it the wrong way of her butting in.”
Ella says that her on-screen husband, Mitch Eynaud, isn’t too keen on talking about MAFS – but adds that she’s in a close friendship group with Domenica, Jack Millar, Brent Vitiello, Al Perkins, and Selina Chhaur.
“We are all so close. I’m in Sydney like every second weekend just so I can hang out with them. And we have a group chat that we talk in 500 times a day,” Ella said.
“We’re just like this little family, and the support is there. They understand what you’ve been through.”
Brent and Al’s bromance is real!
(Image: Instagram)And in new posts shared by Nine representatives in early April, photos from Ella’s 28th birthday celebrations were shared to her account and the accounts of a few others – proving the group are still going strong.
Likewise, Domenica told WHO the group are in touch every single day.
“Of all the people, Selina has been very apologetic [after the nude photo scandal]. And then Brent has been very apologetic, he has really… I think he was stuck between a rock and a hard place during that time of filming but he’s been completely apologetic to me and been reaching out almost every day,” Domenica said.
“We’re in a group chat and we talk all day every day and support each other. We know that what happened in that environment is one thing, one part of our lives. We’re all friends now and what we’re going to make of life now is a completely different story.”
She also said she hasn’t “heard a peep” from the women who didn’t support her through the scandal.
Brent and Ella regularly hang out in Sydney.
(Image: Instagram)“Still to this day, though, Olivia never apologised to me, Tamara [Djordjevic] never did, Samantha [Moitzi] never did, so there’s a lot still that people aren’t owning up to and that’s their prerogative. Whatever. It says more about them.”
Ella also said she had “a gut feeling” about Tamara and Olivia from the first time she met them, claiming her intuition was right and she’s not on friendly terms with the ladies now.
“There were definitely shifts that formed and divides that do form between the women especially, and when I look back on it on my first impressions, everything I thought was right. And everything I thought was going to happen, did happen,” she said.
“They didn’t show it, but at the hens party Tamara said something about if she didn’t like her husband, she would steal someone else’s,” Ella revealed, adding it rubbed her the wrong way.
“From the get-go at the hens party, I didn’t get good energy from Olivia. She’s nice on first impressions, but I had this feeling in me that there was something else to her. I was like oooh, I don’t really know.”
In an interview with HIT FM she added: “It was pretty clear [the nude photo scandal] was gossip because everyone had seen it but me. There was obviously a reason that everyone had seen it but me.
“It was childish. It was immature, and it was high school crap and, like I said, we all have choices. We get to choose how we handle situations. The way people handled it at the dinner party is immature.”
While one core group of friends in Sydney is clear, there are also a few other friendships that have lasted beyond the show.
Tamara and Olivia have caught up since the show.
(Image: Instagram)In an interview with Today, Domenica and Jack revealed they were also still close with Dion Giannarelli.
Meanwhile, Selin Mengu has been seen hanging out with fellow ex-bride Holly Greenstein. Both ladies also been spotted hanging out with the “Sydney crew” on a few occasions.
Olivia and her husband, Jackson Lonie, have been shown spending time with Carolina Santos and Daniel Holmes.
Approached by The Wash as they went out in early April, the camera man asked them: “is this the unpopular group?” and Jackson responded “looks like it doesn’t it,” while Daniel added “the four devils.”
Olivia has also revealed she’s continued her friendship with Tamara outside of the show, posting a photo via Nine representatives on her Instagram in April. The photo was taken earlier in the year, when they enjoyed a night out on the Gold Coast.
“Billini brunch got us good,” the caption read.
While Olivia, Samantha and Tamara were seen getting close on our screens, the trio have not yet been spotted out and about. But that could very well change once they regain control of their accounts.
This article originally appeared on our sister site WHO.
