Holly Ditchfield from Married At First Sight is at the centre of a swirl of negative social media comments, some of them death threats and attacks on her family, amid accusations that she bullied MAFS co-star Hannah Norburn. Showing her followers the extent of the trolling, this morning Holly shared a selection of messages to her Instagram story, noting that she receives similar horrific DMs daily.
One individual wrote, ‘For someone so ugly and fat, I’m surprised you have the breath to utter the spiteful words that come out of your mouth. Genuinely you’re the most disgusting person I’ve EVER seen on TV and the way you bullied and abused Hannah [is] vile.’
And last week Holly opened up about the effect that the messages were having on her. Speaking on social media she said, ‘I feel like I've been really quiet the last few days, It hasn't been easy, I'm not going to lie. I have received some very horrendous messages, appalling messages, ones that have, quite frankly, made me not want to leave my house for a few days.
‘Regarding the girls night episode [that] everyone saw last week, I take full accountability. I could have addressed Hannah a lot calmer, I didn't need to, probably, go as hard as I did but I felt so upset about the way that things had been said off camera to myself - horrible things, to be honest.’
She continued, ‘I take full accountability for blowing my lid, but one thing I don't deserve is death threats and being told to go and kill myself. At the end of the day, I did react but I reacted because of somebody's actions. I would never, ever, dream of treating somebody like that unless they really hurt me and a lot of Hannah's behaviours, I admit, did reignite my insecurities maybe. I am a very protective person of people I care about, so I love all the girls. When my children are being spoken about I am going to react and I am going to get upset.’
Following her heartfelt revelation, Holly’s ex-husband from MAFS, Alexander Henry – who is rumoured to have reunited with Holly in recent weeks - also took the opportunity to stand up for his former partner in an Instagram post which read, ‘Hi guys, I just wanted to address what’s been going on with Holly. Please understand that we are all human and we on the show have been through a crazy and very unique process that not many people will understand.
‘There’s hours and hours of filming condensed into a short episode, so things can be manipulated to paint a narrative and stir waters so the public will talk. Controversy sells, as we all know very well now. So all I ask in defence of Holly and the entire cast is that you please give us some grace and understanding and try to be kind and acknowledge that your comments and trolling can really affect people.’
Whilst you may not agree with Holly’s actions on MAFS, you have to remember that this is a real person who will be reading and absorbing everything that she gets sent and that’s absolutely devastating. When watching your favourite reality show it can be easy to forget that the cast are real people, with real feelings – especially if it’s as dramatic as MAFS. But no matter what you think of an individual’s actions, there’s no excuse for trolling and messaging hate to someone on social media.
Daisy Hall is a News and Entertainment writer on Grazia, specialising in TV and film meaning that you can count on Daisy for the latest (and best) recommendations.