They were one of the strongest couples of this year’s series of Married At First Sight Australia, after being matched by experts Mel Schilling, John Aiken and Alessandra Rampolla, but despite their rollercoaster relationship, fans had high hopes for them lasting the distance. So like everyone else, we were shocked when we found out that Jamie Marinos and Dave Thomas Hand are no longer together, according to reports.
Account manager Jamie, 28, and the 36-year-old builder – aka ‘the big friendly giant’ – chose to stay together at the Final Vows and left hand-in-hand as the show drew to a close, being the only other couple to have made it through to the end alongside Rhi Disljenkovic and Jeff Gobbels. They seemed to have committed to each other, after working through their issues.
‘Jamie, the moment I saw you walking down the aisle, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. You were like a firecracker packed into the smallest, most perfect package,’ Dave said. ‘I promise that I would show up no matter what. And over the past three months, I’ve done my best to live up to that promise. Today, I choose us.’
Despite her sadness when she confessed her love for an overwhelmed Dave six weeks into the experiment, only for him to say, ‘I don’t hate the girl’ in return, Jamie was able to move past that. ‘My heart tells me that I’m not ready to let go of you and everything we’ve built together. Yes, I do want to take this relationship beyond the experiment,’ she told him.
Are Jamie and Dave still together?
Despite their decision to commit to one another at the Final Vows, it has been reported that Jamie and Dave decided to end their romance after filming ended. They attended the reunion dinner party separately.
Jamie said, ‘I don’t believe he was there for the right reasons, because of what was shown to me. That’s how I felt in that moment because I didn’t understand how you could flip the script. And it just felt to me, in that moment, his mask had fallen off and I was essentially just his meal ticket or something.’ She added, ‘I couldn’t understand, because I was like, how do you go from warm, fuzzy feelings to “I don’t hate the girl”. I felt like that was really hard to watch back as well and seeing the full scope of what was going through his mind.’
She later shared on Instagram, ‘Turns out he doesn’t hate the girl and the girl is leaving with her mans.’
A source explained, ‘Dave still wasn’t as into it as Jamie was, and once they got home, he started to pull away.’ Another added, ‘Dave regrets how things ended between them as he’s now seen how popular Jamie is and doesn’t want to be hated.’
SoDramatic! Podcast host Megan Pustetto claimed that Jamie and Dave’s romance was over. She cited sources saying that while the couple really liked each other, they weren’t able to make things work. Jamie wasn’t able to stay at Dave’s home as she does not like dogs, and he could not stay at hers because she lives in a one-bed flat with her sister.
The insider said that the pair ended on good terms and remain friends. While they arrived at the reunion separately, Dave met Jamie and took her by the hand so they could walk in together for a final time.