Booka Did A Reddit AMA & Spilt All Kinds Of ‘MAFS’ Tea About Brett, Jason & Bryce
If you’re still left with questions after the Married at First Sight finale, then today is a blessed day. The reality show’s resident badass, Booka Nile, has done an AMA on Reddit to answer all your burning questions.
At the MAFS finale, Rebecca Zemek was exposed for cheating on Jake Edwards, despite accusing him of cheating on her with Booka on NYE. Awkward! The finale followed a messy night at the reunion dinner, where Liam Cooper appeared to snub his wife Georgia Fairweather for her harsh wedding vows, however Liam later revealed that he ignored Georgia — and Jason Engler — because of the homophobic video they posted on Instagram. However, none of this was featured in the episode.
So what IS the truth? And what else did we not see on MAFS that may have explained everything that went down this season? Booka joined subreddit r/MAFS_AU to answer questions from fans and she did not hold back.
Here are some of the highlights from Booka Nile’s AMA on Reddit:
On what happened with Bec after the finale:
“I didn’t confront her at the reunion. I left and didn’t speak to her for some time after that but I took a bit of time to process the whole thing and I decided not to dwell on it. Forgiveness is everything and holding on to anger only serves to hurt me so I let it go and moved forward.”
On whether the homophobic video featuring Jason, Georgia, and Johnny was brought up at the reunion:
“It was brought up quite extensively at the dinner party and the general consensus was divided. There were those who backed Liam such as myself, Alana, Beck etc and then there were those who were on Jason’s side such as Jonny, Bryce, Kerry etc. Georgia apologised to Liam when he raised it with her. It should also be noted that the reason Liam did not greet Georgia at the dinner party was because of the video not their final vows. It wasn’t brought up at the final reunion couch sessions with the experts though.”
On what Jason and Johnny’s reactions were when Liam brought it up?
“From memory Jason didn’t deny it, he simply didn’t engage when Liam called him out. He appeared apathetic and bored by the conversation. It was Jonny who requested that Liam apologise because Jonny denied that there was anything homophobic brought up in the video..which we know is not the case.”
On whether Bryce is all bad:
“I can only speak for his edit during things like the dinner party and commitment ceremonies when I was there to witness what was going on..but I feel like what you saw was a pretty good summary of what I remember witnessing. There was just obviously a lot of other stuff that happened and you were getting a summarised/condensed view of what was otherwise pretty well aligned with what I had seen go on.
“There were of course some experiences I had with him that weren’t aired, like the time he approached me at the dinner party just after the retreat and he made a point of apologising to me because I had been caught sitting right in the middle of Jake and him when they were standing up and arguing with each other quite aggressively. I hadn’t raised it with him or even expressed that it was a bit scary having two 6ft something men getting heated at one another either side of me, but he had recognised that it would have made me feel intimidated in that moment and he said sorry which was nice. It doesn’t mean all that other shit didn’t go down that you all got to see on TV but there was stuff like that which viewers didn’t see as well.”
On what actually went wrong with Brett that we didn’t see on-screen:
“There were a lot of scenes that were cut out between me and Brett. During the confessions week, we did the task where you write a letter about a really significant or challenging experience you’ve had to go through and I shared some quite traumatic things I had gone through in my letter. His response caused me great offence and hurt and caused a huge injury to our relationship, which I don’t think we ever truly were able to come back from. We were slowly working to rebuild and mend the relationship after that incident but then the Pat letter happened and it completely fell apart.”
On her and Brett’s differences:
“It stemmed from our understandings of what’s okay to make fun of and joke about. I’m pretty anti sexist jokes that focus on women not being as capable of things as men and being emotionally infantile. I also don’t like jokes that ridicule homosexuality and intimacy between two men, because I feel gay men have been subjected to enough mockery and ridicule over the course of time. and that it’s time to stop and respect their relationships the same way we’d respect a heterosexual relationship.
“Brett liked to joke about these kinds of things and we couldn’t see eye to eye on the matter when I’d express why I felt these jokes were problematic and contributing to larger social issues affecting oppressed groups in society. That’s pretty much the long and short of it. We just couldn’t agree on this one no matter how much we talked about it and expressed our perspectives on the matter.”
On whether she is still friends with Brett:
“We talk sometimes and we’re friendly but I wouldn’t say we’re close. I don’t know what you’d even classify us as tbh. It’s a dynamic unlike any that I’ve ever shared with another person.”
On who was and wasn’t portrayed accurately on MAFS:
“So I don’t know what went on behind closed doors with couples and I’m basing this off my own perception of these people. To me, there was nothing that made me raise an eyebrow when I was watching Jake, Bryce, Melissa, Rusty, Beth, James, Jo.
“There were definitely sides you didn’t see to Beck (she had a sweet side), Alana (she’s got a lot of depth and is very intelligent and I feel that didn’t come across too much), Samantha (she’s SUPER funny and fun when she’s not in really hard and upsetting situations), Brett (there’s too much to unpack there but of course this is because I spent so much time with him and know so much about him and this was never going to be able to all be shown on screen), Sam (surprised the hell out of me cos I didn’t like him at the start but then showed a great capacity for insight and remorse and a willingness to educate himself and learn how to be a better person especially in regards to his attitudes and the way he speaks to women etc. I’ve literally been schooling him in feminism and how he can be better and he’s eager to learn haha), Liam (he looked super petty when he snubbed Georgia at the dinner party and it reflected terribly on him but of course, he was actually just really angry and hurt about the homophobic video and her involvement in it)..okay I’m spending so much time unpacking this here I have to stop cos this will take me so long if I try to do everyone.”
On her changing views of Coco, Brett, and Georgia:
“I think I was disappointed with Coco when I learned that her and Cam had been going on those sneaky dates etc and whilst I still like her, that did impact my opinion of her. Ummmmm obviously Brett because I started off with love heart eyes for him and obviously that was gone by the end.
“Georgia I found to be a bit self-obsessed and obnoxious when I first met her but then I saw another side to her which I liked but then of course when the homophobic video stuff came out I was pretty appalled.”
On why Booka chose to do the show:
“For four years I’d been living my life dream and travelling the world playing music. I felt so so lucky and I loved it more than anything. It made me so happy and then one day when we were on tour in Europe and heading to the UK, I overheard one of the guys from another band on the tour lineup exclaim ‘So thats it? Tours cancelled and we have to go home?’. Coronavirus had just been announced as a pandemic, the tour ended abruptly and all remaining shows were cancelled and our managers back home had to scramble to get us flights home immediately as the world entered a state of total panic and everything as we knew it changed.
“I came home and was sent straight into quarantine. I remember sitting there totally alone and going ‘What the fuck just happened?’. It felt like my life as I knew it was over. Over the course of a few days sitting there trying to process what had happened and feeling like I would never be able to do the thing I loved so much ever again, I felt so alone and it was very painful.
“With coronavirus meaning people couldn’t leave the house..and with not knowing how long something like that was going to go on for, I decided one day when I was scrolling through FB and saw someone post the link to apply for MAFS, that maybe doing something like might just be crazy enough to work. It didn’t seem that farfetched or wild when I looked at the state of the world and when I looked at my options. At that point I was like..I’ve lost my livelihood, the world is falling apart and I am completely alone..and I thought fuck it what have I got to lose? So I applied and..well you know the rest haha.”
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