The 12 Worst Couples In ‘Married At First Sight’ History
Married at First Sight is a reality show known for many things: nonstop drama, infuriating men, and John Aiken’s furrowing eyebrows, to name a few. But one thing the series is not synonymous for is creating successful relationships.
The success rate of MAFS is one of the worst. When compared to other long-running reality dating show The Bachelor/Bachelorette, the series’ shortfalls are especially grim. For instance from The Bachelor’s nine seasons and Bachelorette’s seven years on air, five relationships have been formed that are still going strong. That’s a five out 16 chance of success, which might not seem amazing… until you compare those stats to Married at First Sight.
By contrast, MAFS has matched a mammoth 80 couples in its seven years on air — yet only five couples are still dating — or six if Jackson and Olivia are still together, as the rumours have suggested. Even so, six out of 80 ain’t good!
For every Jules and Cam, there’s many more couples headed for heartbreak every season.
Not only do the couples created in the MAFS experiment rarely work out, but some of the couples who date beyond the experiment often manage to bring out the worst versions of each other. It’s time to decide, once and for all, the worst couples to ever grace the reality show.
The worst couples in Married at First Sight history:
1. Nadia & Anthony
Way back on the 2017 season of MAFS, Anthony truly set the standard for the toxic men to follow. When producers matched calm flight attendant Nadia with chaotic racing broadcaster Anthony, they had to know their temperaments would clash.
Anthony had a tendency to yell and cause drama at the dinner parties while proving himself to be a controlling person to be around. While Nadia and Anthony stayed together at final vows, they broke up shortly after. “As soon as the cameras stopped rolling, he dropped me like a hotcake,” Nadia revealed at the reunion dinner party. What a guy!
2. Deb & John
Deb wanted one thing and one thing only: a Polynesian husband. John was a lot of things — he was kind, funny, and a loyal partner — but sadly he was not Polynesian. John’s ethnicity was not something that Deb could move past, and they butted heads constantly throughout their honeymoon, before John elected to leave the experiment.
John would return the following season to be wedded to Melissa, who thankfully didn’t hold his non-existent Polynesian heritage against him.
3. Tracey & Dean
Dean and Tracey became the only couple to actually survive a cheating scandal when Dean secretly dated Davina behind their partner’s backs. Davina would go on to request to remain in the experiment with Dean and ditch her TV hubby Ryan, but Dean decided to stay with Tracey who obviously had severe trust issues going forward.
If this wasn’t bad enough, in an earlier MAFS episode Dean was exposed for voting to leave Tracey after having sex with her the night before, which Tracey iconically described as Dean wanting to “hit it and quit it”.
Thankfully, Tracey kicked Dean to the curb during their final vows.
4. Lauren & Matthew
Talk about a match made in hell. MAFS viewers will remember Matthew by the descriptor he was stuck with for basically the entire season: Virgin Matthew. The 29-year-old former virgin was married to the sexually adventurous Lauren, with the two having a rocky relationship that culminated in Matt revealing he wasn’t attracted to Lauren.
These two just did not vibe. Matthew appeared to be perpetually in shock during every interaction he had with Lauren. In the years since, Matthew has made several allegations regarding Lauren’s behaviour during the experiment and claimed she sent him abusive phone messages.
5. Mel & Dino
Luckily for this show, not all of the bad couples were deeply toxic and problematic. For instance, Dino and Mel were just so terribly matched, it was actually funny. Dino was into yoga and spirituality while Mel… really wasn’t. Dino was introspective, while Mel was the life of party. Dino thought it was acceptable to record his wife’s phone calls, while Mel did not agree.
Dino’s breakup poem to Mel was the perfect way to cap off this ridiculous marriage.
6. Heidi & Mike
Speaking of marriages that were deeply cooked, Mike and Heidi were painful to watch. Mike gas-lit and spoke condescendingly to Heidi for the bulk of their season, yet when the couple spoke about their relationship with the experts, it was Heidi who received the brunt of the blame.
It was a frustrating dynamic to watch week after week and we’re thankful the experts started calling out toxic behaviour and gaslighting in later seasons. After all, Mike walked so that Bryce could run.
7. Ines & Bronson
When it comes to incompatible MAFS couples, Ines and Bronson were in a league of their own. Their wedding was dominated by Ines’ disapproval of Bronson’s eyebrow ring, but the drama truly kicked off on their honeymoon during their parasailing trip from hell when Ines screamed at Bronson to “shut the f**k up”.
The relationship only got worse from there after Bronson referred to Ines as a “c**t” at a commitment ceremony, prompting Mel Schilling to call him out for misogyny. Basically, these two brought out the worst in each other.
8. Tash & Amanda
Who would have guessed that matching two women with completely clashing personalities would not be the recipe for MAFS’ first lesbian love story? Tash and Amanda were polar opposites when it came to their temperaments and interests, with Tash even getting to a stage on their honeymoon where she couldn’t even be in Amanda’s presence.
They both voted to the leave the experiment shortly after their honeymoon. In the years since, Tash has accused Amanda of “harassment” while Amanda found herself in hot water after setting up a GoFundMe page to finance her relocation to Queensland while Victoria was in the grips of lockdown.
9. Stacey & Michael
The 2020 season was known for being one of the most toxic and right in the middle of all the drama was always either Stacey or Michael — the worst MAFS couple you know. Michael was a wealthy business owner, while Stacey was a lawyer — we knew this as she told us every episode.
Their relationship hit its first roadblock when a rumour did the rounds that Michael had kissed Hayley on a drunken night out, which somehow ended with Stacey blaming Hayley for “taking advantage “of Michael at the following dinner party. Huge yikes. Then at the reunion dinner party, another rumour surfaced that Stacey had cheated on Michael with Mikey.
Between the alleged mutual cheating and the general toxic behaviour, these two were simply godawful.
10. Melissa & Bryce
A list of the worst MAFS couples ever would be incomplete without arguably the most controversial couple in the show’s history: Bryce and Melissa. While Melissa was typically just a bystander, Bryce monopolised last year’s season with his manipulative tactics, gaslighting, and toxic treatment of women.
From lying about being in a relationship outside the experiment to his constant battles with Bec and Sam, Bryce ended the experiment completely alienating himself from the rest of the group, and his partner Melissa became collateral damage.
Oddly enough, a year on Bryce and Melissa are still going strong, and they have welcomed twins. Who’d have thunk it.
11. Tamara & Brent
He was a venue manager. She was an operations manager. Can we make it anymore obvious? No? OK, let’s explain…
In short, he wasn’t good enough for her. To the bafflement of every viewer watching, Tamara turned up her nose at Brent’s (very successful) career in hospitality, along with making several tone-deaf remarks about retail workers and wait staff.
Brent and Tamara constantly argued throughout the experiment, moving in and out of their shared apartment like it was an AirBnB, before they both chose to end their relationship at final vows.
Fans rooted for Brent as Tamara continued to mistreat her TV husband — and other women in the experiment. Between slut-shaming Dom over the photo scandal, supporting Andrew instead of Holly, and refusing to learn what Brent did for a living, Tamara would have been the season’s biggest villain if she wasn’t joined by another bride who would go on to redefine what a reality TV villain could be.
12. Olivia & Jackson
Olivia has to be the most divisive bride in Married at First Sight’s nine seasons — and who could have seen it coming? After all, she began her journey on MAFS with a hero edit, as during first few weeks herself and Jackson were portrayed as the golden couple.
The mood shifted when Olivia defended Andrew, calling out Holly for not being the “bigger person” in how she responded to him gaslighting and belittling her. A rivalry then began between Olivia and Dom, starting at girls’ night with Dom smashing a glass in response to Olivia mocking the way she spoke and ending with Olivia circulating a nude image from Dom’s OnlyFans around the group.
While Jackson was uncomfortable with and disapproving of Olivia’s behaviour, he fell short of actually interfering when she was shooting constant snide remarks at Dom. Jackson repeatedly condoned Olivia’s behaviour which arguably makes him just as bad.
But as controversial as they were, Olivia and Jackson are apparently still together to this day.
