The Reality TV Show Ella Ding Would Never Go On Again

Ella Ding is no stranger to reality TV.  

She made her debut on Married At First Sight where she got hitched to a total stranger on national television before that relationship dissolved and she started DMing a fella from Made In Chelsea and heading over to London, appearing on his show to kickstart a romance. But that situation flopped too, and now she’s on another reality show called Love Triangle! Thankfully between Made In Chelsea and Love Triangle, she met her now-boyfriend, so for her stint on Love Triangle she’s not a castmate but instead a narrator.  

There’s a chance that Ella may be the most qualified reality TV-er in all the land.   

Which is why I was stoked when I got to chat to her about her on-and-off-screen life. I had 20 minutes to cram every question I had and you can bet I asked all the things I know you’d want to know about how you get through three reality TV shows sorta unscathed.   

Why is Ella Ding on Love Triangle? 

After two very spicy rounds in the reality TV ring, I was surprised to hear that Ella was throwing herself back in with Love Triangle, but she sees it as an opportunity to help out her lost-in-love comrades and enjoy a TV show with the rest of the fans. 

“I’m in this sweet spot of I don’t know the cast very well. I don’t know the ins and the outs of what really goes on like the real drama. And I’m not obviously that close with production. So I’m kind of just like in my own lane – it’s just like this sweet spot. I feel like I’m still on the same level as the audience because I’m really watching it with you guys and also figuring it out.” 

Image Credit: Stan / Nick Wilson

And, of course, I simply had to ask how the experience shaped up to her time on MAFS, and if she wished she had been a contestant on Love Triangle instead of MAFS.  

“That’s an interesting one,” Ella stated. “I had a really good time on MAFS and I really enjoyed my experience, so I don’t know! Love Triangle seems really testing. I don’t know how I would go having two options. I’m a one-man kind of gal. So I don’t know. I don’t know… I think I would stick to my MAFS experience.” 

But if she did become a contestant on Love Triangle, I wanted to know what she would send as her opening text. This is what every Love Triangle single has to send to their two prospective matches to get the ball rolling on their journey to finding the one.  

“I’m very bad at this! That’s why I was single for 11 years! My dating game got so bad in the end,” Ella joked. “I’d probably just say like, ‘Hey, are you single?’ because like you’d hate to slide into someone’s DMs and they’ve got a girlfriend.” 

She eventually settled on offering up a date idea. “Something like, ‘Hey want to go for a walk?’ My game is so off. Thank god I’ve got a partner now who loves me.” 

Why did Ella Ding go on Made In Chelsea? And why would she never go on it again? 

“Ahh, Made In Chelsea. What a memory. What a fond memory,” Ella told me, sarcastically.  

Ella admitted that she went into Made In Chelsea completely blind. 

“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into and the filming is very different to MAFS,” Ella explained. “I wouldn’t call it ‘reality’ –  I guess other people call it ‘scripted reality’. But yeah, it’s like sets and you know, you might say a line and they might get you to redo it.”  

She shared that she actually felt like an actress for most of her time in London – getting call times, being fed lines and having to redo scenes again and again. But the heat she felt from her castmates felt anything but fake. 

“It felt like it was me against everyone or they were all against me. It was a really tough experience,” Ella said. “It was way harder than MAFS because I was in another country by myself. I was alone.” 

On the show, Ella arrived as Miles’ love interest. For those that don’t watch Made In Chelsea, he’s the season’s loveable fuckboy who has a new girl he’s ‘into’ every couple of episodes.    

Their relationship began in their DMs and Ella tells me that it was genuine and she didn’t go to London to go on Made In Chelsea, but to actually have a relationship with Miles.  

However, when she rocked up, she realised how “produced” the show was and how caught up in the scripted drama Miles was. During one of their “scenes” together, Ella “cracked it” and “flipped out – pointing out all the cameras” so the footage couldn’t be aired as they never break the fourth wall on Made In Chelsea.   

“Even though we were done, we had to like remake scenes,” Ella explained. “He comes running into the scene, shouting ‘Ella! Ella! And he had to redo it like four times. It was actually so embarrassing.” 

Ella shared that Miles was essentially asked by producers to choose between having a relationship with her or getting a bigger storyline on the show. He chose Made In Chelsea. 

“I felt sorry for him,” Ella reflects. “When I left I was like, I feel sorry for you that you’re like stuck in this vortex and you’ve been on it for like seven years. You don’t even know who you are. Like, you think that you’re this character now. Just like the rest of them – the character becomes who they are. In the show, Miles has this single fuckboy vibe. but then off-camera he’s like, ‘I just want to settle down’. He was telling me all of that and I just feel sorry for him. Like, I feel genuinely sad for him.” 

It probably seems fairly obvious now which TV show Ella would not go on again, but in case you haven’t cottoned on, it’s Made In Chelsea. 

She recently found out that one of her friends has been cast in the Made In Chelsea Sydney edition, and she’s done her best to warn them against it. In fact, she wouldn’t even recommend going on the show to someone she didn’t like.  

“I wouldn’t really recommend it if I’m being completely honest,” Ella said. “I wouldn’t recommend it.” 

But she very much would recommend giving Love Triangle a go – either as a contestant or as a viewer at home. It’s a more “real” reality show with so many exciting twists and turns to truly put love to the test. Luckily for you, Love Triangle is now streaming on Stan, so you can head over there now and soak up the drama! 

Editor’s note: This piece is an unbiased editorial piece, but we do have commercial partnerships with Stan.

Image credit: Punkee