‘Married at First Sight’: Austin Worries That Jessica Will Say ‘No’ On Decision Day

Jessica Studer and Austin Hurd were the only couple on Lifetime’s Married at First Sight Season 10 to get through most of the season without major arguments. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t have their own disagreements and doubts as they headed towards Decision Day.

One of the couple’s major arguments was about whether or not Austin would say “I love you” to Jessica before the eight-week mark. On the Apr. 8 episode of Married at First Sight, “Forever or Never,” Austin opened up to a friend about why he was afraid to profess his love to his wife so soon.

Austin sat down with a friend to talk about Decision Day 

Austin had a heart-to-heart over beers with his friend, Paul, before Decision Day (when the Married at First Sight couples reveal whether they want to stay together or break up). 

The network engineer revealed that he was more than a little afraid about the upcoming day. “The overthinking part of me is pretty nervous about Decision Day,” Austin told Lifetime producers. “This is the biggest decision of my life.”

Still, when Austin described his marriage, he didn’t have many major complaints about Jessica or their relationship. “Things are going pretty well,” he said. “These past seven and a half weeks have flown by, and we have Decision Day here in a couple of days, when we’ve got to decide if we’re staying together or not.”

“Is there anything that’s really bothering you?” Paul wondered.

While Austin didn’t see any major red flags, he did bring up his ongoing argument with Jessica about his busy travel schedule for work. Jessica didn’t feel Austin had been completely forthcoming about just how often his career would take him away from her, while Austin thought Jessica was overreacting about something he couldn’t control. 

“I wouldn’t say there’s any big concerning things,” Austin told Paul. “We butt heads here and there. We’ve had some arguments, some disagreements. There was one over my work schedule. I had mentioned that I travel for work, and I thought she had a good understanding of it. And I guess it exploded there a couple days after.”

The ‘Married at First Sight’ star revealed that Jessica had said ‘I love you’ 

Paul wondered if anything else was on Austin’s mind as he prepared to make one of the biggest decisions of his life. “Besides the typical disagreement here and there, is there anything that comes up off the top of your head that maybe could be a dealbreaker?” he asked his friend. 

“The only thing I am concerned about, she did recently tell me that she did love me,” the Married at First Sight star admitted. 

“She dropped the ‘L’ bomb on you!” Paul quipped. 

Austin said he was surprised and conflicted about Jessica’s profession of love, especially because it happened after just six weeks of marriage. 

“She dropped it, and I was a bit surprised by it,” the 31-year-old said. He added that he preferred waiting when it came to big emotional moves like saying “I love you.” 

“From the discussion we had, I thought we were maybe a little bit more on the same page, that we need a little more time to develop into that word, or we maybe feel it, we just don’t want to rush it,” the Married at First Sight star explained. “But with this accelerated process, I could see how you could get to that point a little bit quicker.” 

But Paul had just one major question: “Why didn’t you say ‘I love you’ back?” 

That’s when Austin revealed that he did feel like he loved Jessica. But he wanted the moment of declaring his love to come from him, not just from responding to his wife with the same sentiment. “I think I did feel it, I know I did feel it in the moment,” he said. “I just want it to be truly from me, in my own moment, in my own time.”

Austin worried about getting his heart broken again as it had been in the past 

Besides just wanting to follow his own timeline, Austin had another reason for shying away from those three little words. And it was all about his past heartbreak. 

“Part of the reason why it’s hard for me to say it is because I’ve been heartbroken in the past,” Austin said as he opened up to Paul. “I really took the time to say it, and I really made sure of it, and then I said it, and my heart was broken not too long after.” 

The Married at First Sight star also worried that Jessica had fallen for his having been nice to her, and not truly for him. “That’s been part of my concern. Maybe I’m nice to her, and that’s what she’s falling for, and then that’s not enough,” Austin said. “Maybe she just likes me because I’m nice.” 

Austin even revealed that he was sometimes worried he would be vulnerable to Jessica, and then she would want to break up on Decision Day. “I totally fall for someone, and then it’s like, flip the switch, and then on Decision Day, she says no,” he fretted. 

But Paul thought Austin would come around in due time. “I know he really cares about her, and I know he’s feeling a little weird because she said ‘I love you,’ and he didn’t say it back,” he told Married at First Sight producers. “Maybe it was the wrong time, but it might not ever be the right time. Austin can overthink things, that’s just who he is.”

Still, Paul knew Austin had to “step up” as Decision Day approached, and he had to finally take action one way or the other.