MAFS 2024: Who Is Jack’s Ex-Girlfriend?
Yes, I know we’re thirty seconds into this season of Married At First Sight but there are already important investigations underway.
At the first dinner party of 2024, all the newlyweds gathered to gossip about their nuptials and eat some dry chicken, and to be honest it was all pretty pleasant. The couples were nattering about their honeymoons, what they’re loving about living with their new spouses and appearing to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. But there was something brewing… and it had everything to do with an article the cast had been sending to each other that day. An article about Jack.
If you’ve already lost track of names (fair, there are 427 of them this year), Jack is the groom with a man bun who has been paired with Tori. Jack’s intro edit was suspiciously similar to Harrison Boon’s cut last year with buzzwords like ‘Alpha male’ and ‘dominant’ being thrown around an awful lot. AKA clear signals from producers that Jack is going to be the walking, talking red flag of this season.
@itspunkee Its not filling me with confidence about Jack being a good catch… 😳 #mafs #mafsaustralia #mafs2024 ♬ original sound – Punkee
The article that was circulating among the cast was one about the girlfriend that Jack allegedly dumped to go on MAFS, and the myriad of lies he told her to wriggle out of the relationship. His fellow brides and grooms confronted Jack at the dinner party, asking if this was true and if he did tell this girl on the outside that he was “going overseas for work” when he was actually sneaking off to get married to a total stranger on national television.
Here’s every detail you need to know about the fiasco.
MAFS 2024: Who is Jack’s ex-girlfriend?
Introductions first, please. Jack’s ex-girlfriend is a woman named Courtney Jade who appears to live in Queensland where Jack is also from.
She’s switched her Instagram account to private now (probably because of all the unwanted attention she was getting), but a few photos of her and Jack are in circulation from socials, including this one of the two of them kissing on the beach.
MAFS 2024: What has Jack said about his ex-girlfriend?
Jayden asked Jack to clear up the rumours once and for all, and Jack opened his statement with this disappointing line: “So I’ve got a disgruntled ex, basically.”
When some of the women around the dinner table raised that his ex had said that they were in quite a serious relationship, Jack shut down that claim immediately. “It’s all out of context. It was a very casual yet exclusive relationship,” he snapped. Yes, that sentence makes zero sense.
Jack then began to rip apart his ex-girlfriend’s reputation on the telly.
“She fell harder for me quicker and she’s thrown me in front of the bus, but I’m still not going to go there [and share information about her]. I’ve got everything on this girl, but I would never do it. She’s had a colourful past.”
Couldn’t eye roll harder at Jack discrediting his ex while never addressing his wrongdoings. But before I can get my retinas in position, Jack comes out with a barefaced lie. Jack says that he tried to end their relationship “seven weeks ago” – when, as MAFS expert Alessandra Rampolla points out, he was well in the experiment. This means that either Jack is bullshitting about having any conversation with his ex, or that he was lying to her about why he was ending the relationship. Neither option makes Jack out to be much of a gentleman.
He goes on at the dinner table to say that he tried to end it a few times, but she kept rocking up to his place of work (a public gym) and so he eventually told her he was moving to America for a job to “shut the door” on that.
At the close of his statement about the whole fiasco, he thanks Tori (his current wife) for standing by him, being understanding and having “attractive emotional intelligence”. Tori nods along and says she’s keen to move on from the situation, and aren’t we all, hun.
MAFS 2024: What did Jack’s ex-girlfriend say in the article?
The article that was originally shared and read by the MAFS cast appeared on The Wash. The outlet published a comment from Courtney Jade back in August where she explained Jack told her he was ending things because of “job opportunities” in America. She also shared that their relationship was serious enough that she had flown interstate to meet his family and they had already dropped the L-bomb and said “I love you” to each other.
A month after they had ended and she thought he was in the States, she spotted leaked paparazzi photos of him filming Married At First Sight and gave this statement:
“Good luck to his new wife. I even started selling my furniture when we were together as we spoke about moving in together. This is definitely the worst thing a man has ever done to me. I’d been driving myself crazy for a month wondering why everything was so shady.”
MAFS 2024: What has Jack’s ex-girlfriend said since?
Since Married At First Sight hit our screens at the end of January, Courtney has been approached for comment and clearly had a fair few DMs requesting her side of the story.
She’s only released a short statement on Instagram, essentially asking everyone to leave her alone.
“I have been seeing a therapist and have been medicated due to the disgusting trauma I have experienced and would like to be left alone to heal,” she said. “It’s one thing to go through a breakup, but it’s another thing to have to relive it on nationwide TV and talk about it. Enjoy watching the fame hungry humans that ruin lives and create nothing but pain. I am embarrassed by the world we live in and am absolutely mortified by my experience.’
She finished off her social post by asking if the show was “creating love or creating monsters?”
And I definitely thought that would be the end of what we heard from Courtney, but then one of Jack’s close friends came out in defence of Jack (and jumping to discredit his ex too) leaving this in a comment section:
“I have known @jackdunkley for over 15 years, and I knew their situation. I have met Courtney a couple of times, the girl who sent this message. It was a very brief, yet respectfully casual relationship and he tried to end it a couple of times with her. If this was a man treating a girl like Courtney has been to Jack, this would be a police matter. I’ve seen the endless messages and phone calls she has been leaving him. Jack is trying to find love, he wants to find a nice, sweet girl and Tori might just be the one for him! I’m sure Tori has already worked out that he is one of the good ones.”
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Courtney responded to Jack’s friend with her own statement:
“I am not proud of my decisions following our breakup and I know myself I have been crazy and will own that 🙏🏼 My mental health has suffered due to being completely blindsided and losing my best friend to a reality tv show 🥲,” she began.
“Jack has never tried to break up with me and our relationship was becoming quite serious (hence why I went to Melbourne with him a week before we split). We spoke regularly about our future together and I don’t believe he is on the show for the right reasons at all.”
“I am just telling my side of the story as what has happened here has been horrible .. I wouldn’t wish this on you or anyone else. I most certainly deserved the respect of the truth. 🙏🏼 Respect to you for having his back but nothing about this is morally right.”
I have a funny feeling this won’t be the last mention of Jack’s confusing pre-MAFS history, so I’ll be sure to update the mayhem right here once I hear of it.
Image credit: Nine + Punkee