‘After the MAFS reunion, [Luke] phoned me up, he was so upset. It wasn't what he wanted, he was just hurt and he didn't get it across in the right way. He said to me, “I'm going make this right, I promise you, I'll make this right”’
It’s the morning after the Married At First Sight reunion aired on Channel 4 and I’m on Zoom with Morag Crichton, one of the most talked about contestants from this season’s revamped MAFS UK.
The episode was controversial from start to finish, the biggest bombshell being that Morag and ‘husband’ Luke Dawson were no longer on good terms. Despite ending the series on a high reciting heartfelt speeches during the final commitment ceremony, Morag told the experts Luke had not phoned her once since the show finished filming. In turn, Luke accused Morag of faking her feelings for him at the commitment ceremony and that when he asked her what it meant to her, she replied ‘it’s just a TV show’.
Naturally, things got heated – and it seems they still are. Morag tells me that Luke expressed his regret about what he said during the reunion show right after filming. ‘He was just hurting,’ she said – explaining that he called her to say he would set the record straight once the show aired.
‘But he didn't,’ Morag says. ‘He’s forgotten about everything that we've actually gone through, everything behind closed doors. He's forgotten who he was in that moment and what I had to deal with. He's not standing up for himself and he's not standing up for me.’
The resident ‘nice guy’ of the show, Morag seems surprised by how much Luke has changed since the show aired. For months now, she has been framed as the cruel, cold wife trying to change her fiancé while Luke was the insecure, sweet guy willing to do whatever it takes. Does she feel like Luke has played into that narrative, I wonder?
‘Yeah, 100%,’ she replies. ‘Even after we ended, I said to him I really want to carry on being friends because we've been through so much and we're going need each other when the show airs. We were having really good chats and it was better than ever because the pressure was off for him. Once the show aired, I found that he gradually [changed]
‘He did get what I wanted him to get from the show and that was seeing himself in a different light and learning to love himself a bit more and seeing what everybody else can see,’ Morag continues. ‘I think he might have got carried away with it all. It has gone to head. He's getting a bit of attention, he's loving it, and he's running away with it.’
It’s what Morag says she wanted for him - to see how loved he is - but even that I feel is gracious given how much her reputation has suffered at this classic, archaic stereotype of the mean, nagging wife.
Luke entered the experiment admitting he was ‘insecure’, that he needed someone to bring him back out of his shell after being hurt in the past. It’s something many can relate to, and have empathy for, but is someone who can’t feel loved and whole alone ready for a marriage? Is this not the same old trope we always see, where a woman is not only expected to be a wife, but a therapist too?
I came into this experiment very happy with who I was, I wanted someone to meet me on that level.
‘The first thing his mum said to me was “I think you’re going to bring my son back to me” which is a lot of pressure to put on me,’ Morag agrees. ‘I came into this experiment very happy with who I was. I wanted someone to meet me on that level, I didn’t want somebody to come in not knowing who they were.
‘I feel I’ve done a lot of self-loving,’ she continues. ‘I’ve had therapy over the years, I’ve been travelling, I’ve moved away, I’ve done a lot of stuff for me to make me happy being alone. I don’t need anybody, I just want somebody I can share my life with, but them being their own person.’
Much of the show centered around Morag supposedly trying to ‘change’ Luke, for example by taking him shopping. But according to Morag, that was all help Luke asked for.
‘Not once did I say, “You need to change”, it was always him asking for my help, he wanted me to help with what he felt he was lacking in’, she says. ‘We even had chats about his ex-girlfriends controlling him and how she never liked him going shopping because she didn’t want him to look good due to her own insecurities. So Luke asked me for my help, I didn’t say you need to change I’m taking you shopping… the whole team on the show was helping him with his confidence and I said to him every day “I know when you watch this back you’re going to realise your self-worth”’
Does Morag wish those conversations would’ve aired? After all, the public might view her very differently now.
‘Yes, absolutely… there’s a few points,’ she laughs. ‘[I wish] the chat I had with Paul in the first place about what I wanted [would’ve aired]. I said I wanted someone who was confident, that had self-esteem and knew who they were, had lots of energy. That wasn’t in there. But then it pings to Luke saying he doesn’t have any confidence. I feel as a viewer had they had seen those two sides, they would’ve understood it was going to be a hard journey and we both had lessons to learn in order for it to work, rather than thinking I just wanted someone based on their physical appearance.’
The trolling was hard to take at first.
Ultimately, it seems like there’s a lot we didn’t get to say that Morag is now paying the price for. So how is she handling the negative attention?
‘It’s a learning curve, it was hard to take at first,’ she admits. ‘I did struggle with it but unfortunately I’m getting used to it. The scary thing is, there’s trolls that have no picture or followers and it’s just an account there to do that, but it’s when it comes from normal people – mothers and professional women. You could literally be working with a troll right now and you wouldn’t know it. It’s regular people that feel like it’s acceptable to write something really horrible and press send.’
With that in mind, how does she feel about the experiment now?
‘I have absolutely zero regrets. I came into this 100% myself and I left 100% myself. I was genuine, I was real. I’ve got people saying I was fake and I was leading Luke along, I wasn’t. I was open and honest and I can hold my head up now because of that.’
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Married At First Sight UK: Which Couples Are Still Together?