alyssa claire married at first sight

Alyssa From ‘MAFS’ Gives Details About Affair After Fans Label Her “Hypocritical”

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Alyssa Barmonde had a pretty cruisy start to her Married at First Sight journey, seemingly smitten with her partner Duncan James with the pair going from strength to strength.

Things started to crumble when the Claire and Adam kissing cheating saga was revealed, with Alyssa very passionately going in to bat for Janelle, Adam’s partner. In her defence of Janelle, Alyssa also seemed to ruthlessly want to hold Claire accountable, singling her out at the dinner party for her behaviour and for lying to Janelle’s face, even when Claire was the only person taking accountability for her actions.

The strong reaction from Alyssa rubbed many MAFS fans the wrong way, with people pointing out that Alyssa openly admitted during Confessions Week to being the other woman in a previous relationship.

Alyssa also had a problem with Duncan still talking to Adam after the kiss took place, something that took a strain on their relationship.

However, recently more details of Alyssa’s past affair have come to light and the whole situation sounds pretty cooked.

Here’s what we know about Alyssa from Married at First Sight‘s past affair.

In an interview with 9Now, Alyssa said the affair was rife with power imbalance and manipulation and occurred over 10 years ago when she was only 23.

“He was a man in power, and notorious for flirting with other women. I started seeing him at the local gym and he invited me to help me with my training,” Alyssa said.

The man was allegedly not married when the affair first started. Several weeks after their relationship commenced, she noticed the man was wearing a wedding ring and he said he had tied the knot to help his wife obtain a visa.

After six months of dating and seeing a therapist while on stress leave (something Alyssa said the man she was dating suggested), Alyssa confronted the man and ended things. “I confronted him and told him he was lying to me, and that I didn’t trust a single word he said. He denied everything and stuck to his story. I have not spoken to him since.”

Alyssa was also asked why she stayed in the relationship while knowing she was ‘the other woman’.

“When you are being manipulated by someone with power over you, you don’t realise that you’re ‘the other woman’ as such,” Alyssa said. “They always make you feel like you are number one, and manipulate you with a variety of frightening strategies. It requires a community, a care of others, people from the outside to point it out to you.

“It’s abuse of the worst kind, and I’m forever grateful for my therapist who explained this to me. It helped me to free myself of the pain and confusion I was experiencing.”

Alyssa later told 9Now that she feels empathy for Claire and her situation.

“I really felt as though she was saddened by the situation, and potentially manipulated by Adam in not coming forward sooner. Adam took no accountability and continued to blame Janelle for his actions,” she said.

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Married at First Sight returns tonight on Channel 9 at 7:30pm.