Yahoo Lifestyle 
MAFS EXCLUSIVE: Harrison Boon opens up about his mental health
The controversial Married At First Sight groom shares his thoughts on his 'edit' and how it's affected his personal life.
When it comes to reality TV ‘villains’, it’s fair to say that Harrison Boon is one of the most polarising personalities Married At First Sight has ever seen.
The 32-year-old father-of-one has been surrounded by controversy since the very first episode of the season when it came out at the wedding he had a ‘secret girlfriend’. He then received further backlash for getting a girl’s number during a night out and meddling in other participants’ relationships at the recent couples retreat.
Speaking candidly with Yahoo Lifestyle about the events of the season so far, Harrison admits it’s been “a bit weird” watching his MAFS experience play out on TV and seeing how he’s been portrayed.
“No one knows how the public is going to respond when you're actually in the experiment,” he shares.
“You’re just going through it and then when you come out and you see that you’ve been likened to Satan, it's a weird experience. I don't know how hair and makeup managed to hide the horns for so long. It's a bit different finding out that you are the villain for the season.”
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Harrison went on to say it’s important for viewers to remember that MAFS is a reality show made for entertainment purposes, so not everything is shown exactly as it happened in real life.
“When you watch it back, you realise very quickly that your relationship needs to be presented in a way that is entertaining,” he says.
“I think the way that the show was shot was to maximise the drama from every big event. I was there for some of it and I don’t remember it being quite so dramatic, but then you watch it on television and you’re like, oh wow, they’ve really turned the volume up on this.
“So it’s a different experience but I realise that there's a commercial aspect to the show and the way that it needs to be presented and that's okay. I think if MAFS was shot in a documentary format it would be quite boring and quite dry.”
'Really good support network'
While he says some of the comments on social media about his portrayal have been “pretty funny”, Harrison admits it’s been tough dealing with the public’s strong reaction against him.
“I think the thing with online stuff is people don't have any real respect for your private life,” he remarks. “The hard thing for me is seeing my parents and my son being thrown around in the media in a negative way.”
He adds that he’s grateful he has a “really good support network”, which includes his fellow season ten grooms, so the backlash hasn’t been too detrimental to his mental health.
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“The communication is great amongst the guys in the group chat and we’re probably more brutal on each other in terms of joking about each other and taking the piss than the public is with us,” he says.
“So I think having mates that you can sort of laugh at yourself with, especially the guys that you went through it with, it’s almost like anything the public says is irrelevant because we've got that strong close bond and we definitely enjoy the banter and the rivalry and all that sort of stuff.
"I feel like if I didn't have that support network, my mental health would be in a much different space. Whereas the fact that I do have that group of friends and also my group of friends that are very supportive and my family - without that, I would’ve really struggled to get through this.”
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