MAFS expert John Aiken shuts down rumours of a celebrity season

Married At First Sight expert John Aiken has shut down speculation that next year’s season of the popular reality TV show will be a ‘celebrity’ format.

It’s been long rumoured that Channel Nine want to cast famous faces in the social experiment, with Richard Wilkins even admitting earlier this year that he was once offered “a lot of zeros” to appear on the series.

An anonymous producer from Endemol Shine also told New Idea in 2021 that discussions were underway, with stars like Richard Reid, Yvie Jones, Ash Williams, Tully Smyth, Harry T and Paulini Curuenavuli in talks to join.

“If we want the show to keep going, we need to be bold and change things up,” the source claimed. “A celebrity edition is exactly what MAFS needs – it’s a tried and tested format.”

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Meanwhile, Now To Love shared a leaked screenshot of an Instagram message in 2020 from John discussing a star-studded season.

“As you know by now from our email conversation you will not be the only celebrity on MAFS 2021,” the message said.

“We are currently trying to figure out if we want a celebrity marrying a celebrity for the season or celebrities paired up with strangers on the outside. We will have a video call tomorrow morning to discuss agreements further and I'll let you know the other celebrity names who are currently on board.”

‘I think we just keep doing what we’re doing’

Now, John has insisted that there are no plans for the show to stray away from its familiar formula for season ten next year.

“I think we just keep doing what we’re doing,” he told Yahoo Lifestyle on the Logies red carpet on Sunday.

“I don’t think we need to go down the path of Celebrity MAFS. I think we just keep 2023 with essentially the same ingredients: Singles looking for love trying their best to fall in love.”

The relationship expert also spoke about keeping up with the MAFS cast post-show and reuniting for TV’s night of nights.

“I tend to sort of just take a backseat once the show’s over, keep it low profile and then we start matching very shortly again so I’m back into it,” he shared.

“But I do love watching them shine post-show. All those MAFS alumni over the last nine seasons, it’s great to have been a part of their lives.

“I haven’t seen them for some time and when you bump into them after the show, they’ve sort of become their own different people and they’ve got their own careers, so it’s lovely to catch up with them.”

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