Controversial Married At First Sight groom Bryce Ruthven has been embroiled in another womanising scandal – and this time it’s with a former bride from the show who says she was “creeped out” by his unwelcome advances.
Leaked text messages exclusively obtained by Woman’s Day between Bryce, 31 – who appeared to be in a relationship at the time – and season seven sweetheart Connie Crayden reveal the lengths he went to in his pursuit of the former MAFS bride.
Connie, who fans will remember as the awkward, unlucky-in-love breakout star of 2020, met Bryce when he insisted they record a radio demo together.
At the time, the former Canberra radio announcer was engaged to Lana Bongioletti, who he has publicly confessed to cheating on in the past.
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The controversial groom has been causing quite the stir on the new season, and yet his wife Melissa has stuck by his side through it all.
(Channel Nine)After that initial meeting, Bryce – who married 31-year-old Melissa this season – and Connie, 28, remained in contact, regularly chatting over FaceTime.
And while she says the “conversations would start off quite platonic”, they soon became overly “flirtatious and sexualised”.
In one text message exchange in April last year, Bryce asked Connie if she was chatting to other men.
He followed the message up by saying, “I’ll selfishly say I hope you don’t come across another guy.”
In leaked messages obtained by Woman’s Day, Bryce is seen telling Connie that he finds her attractive, all while being engaged to his now ex Lana.
(Supplied)While Connie resisted his text message advances, reminding the MAFS Lothario he was engaged and couldn’t “have the best of both worlds”, she tells Woman’s Day that he was much more “direct” and “inappropriate” with her in person.
Last week Bryce appeared on a Gold Coast radio show where he was asked to address rumours about a possible romantic relationship with Connie – which he poured cold water on.
“Oh Connie, does she look like my type of girl?” he said sarcastically.
However, text messages in April between the pair paint quite a different picture from Bryce’s side.
Connie is seen shutting down Bryce numerous times as he attempts to flirt with her.
(Supplied)“Not to sound rude to you… you know I think you are attractive,” he said, with Connie replying, “[This is] a conversation we don’t need to be having.”
Connie says throughout the time she was talking to Bryce she felt that he would constantly get the wrong idea about the nature of the relationship.
“I would always say to him these conversations are inappropriate,” she says.
“It’s making me feel so guilty as a woman for Lana.”
The former MAFS bride (pictured) reveals that she was left feeling “creeped out” by Bryce’s messages.
(Instagram)
