Married at First Sight is here! The weddings, the dinner parties, the chaotic commitment ceremonies - we've missed it all! The series is just beginning to unfold but it is already shaping up to be an eventful one. However, we cant help but wonder what really goes on behind the scenes of E4's hit dating show. A cast with so many big personalities and such a massive production - there has to be more behind the scenes chaos that we just don't get to see, right?
Thankfully last years contestant Alexis Economouhas spilled all the juicy details. If you watched the show last year you will remember Alexis was married to Jordon Mundell and their relationship was doomed from the start. Jordon had an affair with Megan Woolfe ( who was married to Bob Voysey) and it, well... all kicked off. Then Alexis returned to give marriage another go with Ant Poole (who had already left bride Nikita Jasmine) but that all came crumbling down too.
With such a dramatic journey on the show she has really seen it all! Here's everything Alexis revealed about behind the scenes of MAFS UK:
The producers don't get too heavily involved
Discussing what it’s like working with the show’s producers, Alexis insisted that they don’t get too involved and that everything viewers see on the programme is genuine. She explained to OK! Online, 'It’s very genuine from my perspective of being a cast member that’s part of the show. Everything on my side was genuine and I guess the producers are just doing their jobs also. You know, they’re friends at the time, but it’s also within their job role to bring out your best and your worst side.'
There are alcohol limits (and sneaking alcohol in)
We always see the brides and grooms toasting with a glass of wine at the start of the dinner parties and things do normally get very heated from there. So, how much are they actually allowed to drink? Alexis revealed to the publication, 'We kind of have a [drinking] limit to a certain degree as in whatever’s there, there’s no more after that. You either pace yourself or drown yourself... It’s moderated to a certain extent but there’s no major limit as in you can only have one or two.'
However, in the past some contestants have taken extra and it's probably why the dinner parties are so dramatic. Ex-contestant Bob Voysey previouslytold Grazia about couples sneaking wine into their handbags during dinner parties. ‘I think as soon as a bottle of wine was gone, during the first dinner party, they would just replace it,’ Bob says. ‘And then we were smashed, and it ended up in a massive argument. So then the second week, they took away a bit more alcohol. But we all thought "Sod it, we're all going to bring our own drink."'
Producers take away phones and social media
If you're an avid Reality TV viewer you will know that on most shows, contestants phones get taken away. This allows them to fully lean into the experience and remove distractions. However with MAFS UK this is only partly the case, as the filming of the cast’s lives starts three months before the show properly starts, during which time they can have their devices.
Alexis revealed: 'So prior to going actually into the show, you do a lot of filming about you, your life, and everything else. But from the minute you get in my room, or maybe a couple of days before that, our phones are actually taken away from us,' said Alexis. 'Then we’re given a production phone.'
Alexis explained that, last year, producers had concerns about spoilers leaking - meaning the cast had their phones taken off them earlier than expected. She said, 'We were told that we’d have our phones until the morning of our wedding, but I think someone was in the car, maybe had found out who one of the husbands were, so production were worried that it would be leaked.
'They actually came and took all of our phones away earlier than we were supposed to, and I remember me and Amy [Christophers] sitting in the hotel room crying to production,' she continued. 'We were like "We thought we’d have two more days with our phones. What are we going to do without our friends and family?" At the time I was distraught.'