7 biggest bombshells from MAFS' Eliot Donovan's rogue tell-all interview

This year’s cast of Married At First Sight is arguably the most rogue group of participants fans have ever seen. While some brides and grooms have launched second Instagram accounts to call out their ‘edit’ and reveal what wasn’t shown on TV, controversial cast member Eliot Donovan decided to come into Yahoo Lifestyle’s studio for a tell-all interview.

The business owner quit the experiment just a few days after getting ‘married’ to Lauren Hall earlier this season and made a surprise return this week as an intruder with his new bride Veronica Cloherty. Following Wednesday night’s explosive dinner party where he came face to face with his ‘ex-wife’, Eliot is ready to tell all about his experience on the show.

RELATED:

• MAFS' Adrian Araouzou reveals the real reason he quit the show

• Shock twist behind MAFS' Adrian and Sierah's 'cheating scandal'

• MAFS fans point out bizarre detail in Eliot and Lauren's return

From the application process and his disastrous first marriage to Lauren, to his much-discussed ‘non-negotiables’ and why he really returned to the experiment, here are the seven biggest bombshells from his tell-all interview.

Eliot thought he was going on The Block

Speaking about his decision to go on MAFS, Eliot admits he thought he was being approached to appear on a completely different reality show when he received a message on Instagram.

“I never intended to go on a show like this. I never applied, it was never even in my paradigm,” he details. “I was approached by a talent scout on Instagram and a girl messaged me and said, ‘Hey, we want you to audition for the most popular TV show in the country’. And I always thought it was The Block, so I was like, ‘Oh, you beauty!’. Like, that's my thing, I work in home renovations.”

Eliot eventually learned the opportunity was to build a relationship rather than a home, and he quickly became interested in MAFS' unique concept.

“I eventually just went, you know what? At the end of the day, I’m probably not going to meet my person there, but it could be a really interesting experience,” he says. “I’ve got nothing to lose if I just go in and I meet her and she's not the one and I pack my bags and go.

“If you see the process going into it, that was my whole mindset. I was like, I'll just leave if it's not the right person for me. Like, I don't want to be part of this experiment, I don't want to be here to try to entertain people… But if it's the person my dreams, then I could meet her, and then who knows?”

Why he went on MAFS with 'one foot out the door'

Eliot explains that although he entered the experiment with “one foot out the door”, it had nothing to do with “ticking boxes” or “non-negotiables”.

“I saw it like, if they're gonna match me, I'm gonna give them as much information as I can for them to get a suitable match. And that way, at least I can say, ‘Well, I told you this wouldn't work out’,” he admits.

“Then I wouldn't be like Tim [Gromie] going, ‘I don't have the type, but it has to be a petite blonde’ or whatever. I could say, ‘Well look, I said I really wanted to have a big family, that's something that's important to me. Why have you matched me with this person that doesn’t really align with that?’.”

His comment about Lauren's age was 'taken out of context'

Fans were outraged when Eliot, 35, told producers that one of his reasons for quitting the experiment was because Lauren was 37 and he was hoping to be matched with someone “under 30”. However, Eliot asserts that the comment was “taken way out of context” and he has no problem that his new ‘wife’ Veronica is 32 because she still wants to have kids.

“The thing was, [the producers] asked me, ‘Why did you leave?’ and I was like, ‘Look, we didn’t click, I don't see a future’. And then they just pushed the question again and again and again until they got whatever answers they wanted, and that was an answer but it wasn't the whole answer,” he says.

“If I met the girl of my dreams and she happened to be 37 as if I'm going to be like, ‘Nah, sorry, the number’s wrong’. That was never the way that it worked out. It was more just like, if they phrase the question like, ‘So Eliot, what on your non-negotiables didn't line up?’ and then they put it on me and I go, ‘Oh well she's 37’ and they don't show them asking the question, they show me volunteering information and it comes across very different.”

He felt 'awful' when he left Lauren

Eliot claims that the show didn’t air the entire scene when he quit the show and said goodbye to Lauren on their honeymoon, and he was “really apologetic”.

“I felt awful,” he confesses. “I said to her like, ‘Look, I feel like I'm in a horrible position here. I have to either go back on the thing that I said I would do, or I have to walk out on you. It sucks’.

“I don't want this to be about like, ‘I'm better than you’ or anything like that. It was more just we didn’t click and it was very, very obvious early on. Not even anything about box ticking, just the chemistry was way off. It was very awkward, a lot of silence… You can’t have any banter, you can’t have a laugh about things. It's really tough.”

Why he decided to come back

Eliot says a big reason why he agreed to return as an intruder was because he started feeling concerned about his ‘edit’ after filming his one-on-one interview with John Aiken, and he wanted an opportunity to show a different side to himself.

“I got a call from the head producer and she said, ‘Listen, we have another match for you, what would you think about coming back?’. And obviously, I was like, ‘Again, really? I can't make that mistake twice’,” he laughs. “But I thought about it and I thought, ‘You know what? Maybe it's a chance for me to engage with the experiment in a bit of a different way’.

“I didn't come back being like, ‘I'm a new man, I’ve changed’ or whatever. It was more like, ‘Look, maybe I was looking at the experiment the wrong way. Maybe I should treat it a bit more like an experiment. And maybe that'll give me an opportunity to kind of show who I actually am, rather than just cutting out the bits that they want for a ‘villain’.”

He thought he and Lauren would be friends

Eliot says he was well aware that if he was being asked to return to the experiment then Lauren would’ve also been given the same opportunity. What he didn’t expect, however, was her frosty reception at the dinner party and he felt like a “lamb to the slaughter”.

“I was under the impression that she wasn't even that upset about [me leaving]. Like, there was only one scene that they filmed where she was just kind of like, half-heartedly convincing me to stay. But it was only because they were like, ‘Hey Lauren, go and tell him that you want him to stay’. She really wasn't fussed,” he asserts.

“So I was thinking, okay, they're going to give her another chance, she’s going to be there with a new husband, they’re gonna be happy, and I’ll say, ‘Hey listen, sorry about that’. I thought we’d actually be friends. I did not think there was that level of resentment coming back. Probably naively, but yeah, nonetheless, I didn't think it was going to be played like that.”

SHOP:

• ☀️ Tax laws to burn Aussies on summer essential: 'Many of us struggle'

• 💅 Aussie company making beauty more accessible and less of a burden

• 😴 The award-winning mattress that's 'like sleeping on a cloud'

Not all of the grooms are genuine

Perhaps the most cryptic bombshell Eliot dropped is that not all of the grooms on the show are being their authentic selves on camera.

“I don't want to be naming people, but there are guys that go on there and they have a different persona on camera to off camera, and it's very obvious when you watch the episodes back and you know them,” he details.

The girls were actually very honest and upfront, but some of the guys were just like, night and day different, on camera, off camera. They’ll tell you one thing and then as soon as the cameras are rolling, they're not your mate anymore. They're like, ‘Respect women’, and you're like, ‘That's coming out of your mouth?’. It's actually hilarious.”

Want the latest lifestyle and entertainment news? Make sure you are following us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter.