The MAFS Reunion Only Left Us With More Questions

It may be at the end of a jam-packed season, but the Married At First Sight reunion is always one of the most highly-anticipated moments for eager MAFS fans. From the airing of unseen footage to contestants coming clean about what's been said and done during filming, the reunion ep almost always delivers on the drama and goss to perfectly tie up a few months of juicy reality TV.

However, this year many viewers feel robbed by the final episode. After investing our time and energy into the weekly dinner parties, commitment ceremonies, and everything else that happened in between, we didn't quite receive the clarity and closure we'd hoped for.

In 2023, the reunion format followed that of previous years. Couples sat on the couch opposite the show's experts, watched back footage of how their relationship evolved, and then spoke about what went right and what could've been done differently during the social experiment.

But after last night's reunion, we still have several lingering questions that have been left unanswered. With the show not airing footage of several couples sitting on the couch, we're still very much in the dark about what transpired between some contestants since filming ended. We also missed the chance to see some of the... ahem, fuckboys such as Harrison Boon and Shannon Adams being held accountable by the experts, and apparently, there's a lot more action that also went down.

One of the MAFS brides from this season has anonymously spoken to Daily Mail, shedding light on some of the explosive moments that apparently never went to air.

This contestant claims that bride Melissa Sheppard was left "inconsolable" after watching back footage of her and Josh White's relationship throughout the experiment, as she felt she was "slut-shamed" in her portrayal on-screen. She reportedly ripped off her microphone and stormed off-set.

"Melissa was a mess. She was crying and inconsolable. Jesse [Burford] was there with her trying to calm her down until a producer walked over to try and talk to her," this contestant said.

Throughout the season, Sheppard and her former groom Josh White hadn't quite seen eye-to-eye on sex.

"Josh, I need to confess to you, so that you understand why I'm feeling this way, and why [sex] is important to me. My first marriage, it was a loveless and sexless marriage. So I left," Sheppard said when reading out a letter she had written for her husband during confessions week.

The couple then watched videos showing how their other half reacted when they saw them for the first time at their wedding. White was less than impressed that Sheppard's focus seemed to revolve heavily around sex.

"He is Thor! I hope Josh has a big hammer. Let's wait and see!" she laughed in the footage. "I've already sized him up."

After watching the clip, a frustrated White told producers he was "shocked" by Sheppard's focus on just sex.

"The wedding, that was a really important day for me, and now I can't quite shake that I'm just seen as a sex object here," he said at the time.

While we saw Bronte Schofield and Harrison Boon reacting to other cast members on the couch, we never actually saw this controversial couple being focused on in the reunion. There's plenty of questionable behaviour from Boon that we were hoping would be addressed — from him seeing another woman just days before his MAFS wedding, to gaslighting Schofield and then meddling in Melinda Willis and Layton Mills' marriage. Has Boon spoken to his ex, has Schofield met a new man, have Boon and Schofield uttered a word to one another since filming wrapped? These are questions we wanted answers to.

Their lack of air-time was pretty hard to swallow for many viewers, who wanted to see where the couple stood after leaving the show before final vows.

The anonymous bride claims that Schofield and Boon spent the longest time on the couch with experts, which only adds to the blow of none of it making it to the final cut.

She also claims Boon was his opinionated self, making a remark towards Duncan James about his relationship with Alyssa Barmonde.

"Harrison asked Duncan why would he want to be with a single 35-year-old mum with baggage when he can pick up 22-year-olds after this," she told the publication.

The most obvious explanation as to why we didn't see every couple on the couch would probably be the time restraints of an episode. How do you fit everything into 90 minutes?

But, it doesn't make it any easier for fans who've invested hours upon hours living and breathing MAFS, only to feel let down with as much of a sting as a jilted bride or groom at the final vows.

Refinery29 Australia has contacted Channel 9 for comment.