4 ‘Married at First Sight’ Cast Members Who Deserved a Do-Over
Things don’t always work out for the cast of Married at First Sight. While the show has produced some lasting partnerships, such as Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner from season 1, most couples end up getting divorced.
Some Married at First Sight participants part ways amicably, having agreed they’re just not meant to be together. But other relationships blow up in a major way, with nasty words and ugly accusations from both sides. Occasionally, people end up matched with a spouse who simply refuses to participate in the process in good faith. They check out early on, play mind games, or are (in extreme cases) borderline abusive. That’s what happened to these four people. The MAFS experts got their matches badly wrong, and they definitely deserved a do-over.
Meka Jones
Meka Jones said “I do” to Michael Watson on Married at First Sight Season 10. It was not a match made in heaven for the Washington, D.C., pair. While they seemed like a good fit at first, things turned sour for the pair soon after they met at the altar. Meka claimed her new husband issued an off-camera ultimatum on their flight to Panama for their honeymoon, telling her he couldn’t commit to the marriage if they didn’t have sex on their honeymoon. She added that he was “a totally different person” on camera than behind closed doors.
Once they returned home, things only got worse. Evidence of Michael’s lies began to pile up, including clues that he hadn’t been honest about his finances and employment situation. Michael’s dishonesty ultimately doomed the marriage. After eight weeks together, they were granted an annulment, one of the first in Married at First Sight history. (Fellow season 10 couple Taylor Dunklin and Brandon Reid also had their marriage annulled.)
When E! News asked Meka why the relationship failed, she didn’t mince words. “I think the reason my marriage didn’t work out was because it was built on lies,” she said. “Michael wasn’t honest about who he was and that affected the marriage in a huge way.”
Chris Collette
Realtor Chris Collette married dog rescuer Alyssa Ellman during Married at First Sight Season 14 in Boston. He was happy when he met his wife at the altar. Her, not so much. First, she refused to share a hotel room with her on their wedding night. Then, she turned actively hostile during their tension-filled honeymoon in Puerto Rico. While Chris made a genuine effort to get to know his new wife, she refused to engage, telling him they weren’t compatible. In an expletive-filled rant to MAFS producers, she complained about the experts doing her dirty and described her new husband as a “s***ty used car salesman” and a “f***ing asshole.”
Alyssa clearly wasn’t happy with her marriage. But bizarrely, she refused to ask Chris for a divorce. Instead, she tried to negotiate an agreement where they’d split their time in what was supposed to be their shared apartment so that she could “hang out with my girls” (and presumably prolong her time on reality TV). Chris wasn’t having it. Shortly after they returned home from the honeymoon, he asked for a divorce. Later, he said he’d have “tapped out even sooner” if he realized everything Alyssa had been saying about him behind his back.
Amber Bowles
The Married at First Sight Season 9 experts thought cast members Amber Bowles and Matt Gwynne would be a great match. They couldn’t have been more wrong. After a promising beginning, the former pro basketball player “turned on” his new wife, she said in a 2021 interview in which she also described him as a narcissist.
During their brief marriage, Matt frequently went out drinking without his wife, a grade school teacher who eventually came to suspect that he’d been unfaithful. He was also still active on dating apps despite being in a relationship. Amber tried to make things work, but kept hitting a brick wall with her husband. Unsurprisingly, the pair chose divorce on Decision Day. Later, at the season 9 reunion, Matt admitted that he knew within 15 minutes of meeting Amber that he didn’t want to be married to her. Despite that, it took Amber months to fully disentangle herself from the marriage, as Matt dragged his feet on signing the divorce papers.
“You would think that someone who hated me so much would want to get divorced,” Amber told fellow Married at First Sight cast member Elizabeth Bice in a conversation shared on the latter’s YouTube channel.
Paige Banks
Was there any question that Paige Banks would be on this list? The Married at First Sight Season 12 cast member was matched with Chris Williams, who quickly distinguished himself as one of the worst husbands in the show’s history. Red flags started waving on the couple’s wedding day when he admitted he wasn’t attracted to his new wife. But that didn’t stop him from consummating their marriage the same night, as he revealed to her family during an awkward convo the next day.
Somehow, things managed to go downhill from there. During their honeymoon, Chris learned his ex-fiancée, whom he’d broken up with just a few months earlier, was pregnant. Shockingly, Paige didn’t bail on her marriage then. But she probably should have. Over the next eight weeks, Chris continued to manipulate, lie to, and gaslight his wife. He kept up his antics through Decision Day, when he revealed his ex had a miscarriage and that he wanted to try to work things out with Paige. She seemed to be wavering, but Dr. Viviana Coles wasn’t having it.
“I’m not OK with this,” she told Chris. “‘I’m being very honest with you. I feel like you’re doing this to play with her and now to play with us. She deserves a lot more.”
Ultimately, Paige said she wanted a divorce. Given her negative experience with the show, it’s hard to imagine her wanting to get married at first sight again. But if there’s anyone who deserves a MAFS do-over, it’s her.
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