MAFS expert labels 2024 cast behaviour as 'absolutely abhorrent': 'Jaw on the floor'

Married At First Sight’s relationship expert Mel Schilling has teased that the upcoming season features some of the most “abhorrent and inappropriate” behaviour she’s ever seen on the reality show.

Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle ahead of the show’s return on January 29, Mel shares that season 11 will be very different to previous years as there are “loads of little dramas” rather than one major storyline.

“In other seasons, I think we've had one really fascinating, interesting story running through where there's been a couple of key players and everyone's been really focused in on what's going on in their dynamic,” she details.

“But this time, it's like there's so many different little subplots going on. There are so many interesting dynamics that happen between people that you wouldn't even expect. I think it’s much more interesting actually.”

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Although she’s appeared on MAFS since 2016 and also works as an expert on the UK series, Mel says she was “literally gobsmacked” by some of the incidents that occurred and comments that were made this season.

“Sometimes I think I've heard it all and then one of these participants opens their mouth and something completely unexpected comes out and I think, ‘Wow, I didn't think it could get any worse and there it is’,” she remarks.

“There’s a number of people who behave in ways that are absolutely abhorrent and inappropriate and cross boundaries that just should never happen in any social environment. You will have so many jaw-on-the-floor moments from a whole range of different people, and really from some people that you won’t expect.”

'We've never really seen that before'

Mel went on to share that another major change viewers will notice is how the social dynamic changes by having older participants in the experiment.

“We’ve actually got two different couples that are my age and older, which is a first,” she says.

“So it's not only that interesting relationship between those couples, but we’ve now almost got the older group and the younger group. And what happens is there's a beautiful sort of mentor-mentee relationship that develops that I absolutely love and some really unexpected role modelling and learning that happens between people. We've never really seen that before.”

She adds that the experts also take on a much bigger role this season which will feel “a bit different to the audience”.

“Because there is so much going on within the dynamic and within the couples, you’re going to see us doing a lot more intervention,” she teases. “A lot more pulling people up, holding up that mirror and calling people out.

“It's probably less of the ‘Let’s all celebrate happy families’, and a lot more of the ‘The way you're behaving right now is actually harming someone else, let’s talk about the impact of that’. So you're going to see the three of us really stepping in in quite a firm way, and that felt quite different for us this time.”

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