MAFS intruder Carolina responds to wedding backlash: 'Not my fault'

Married At First Sight intruder Carolina Santos certainly made a strong first impression on viewers during her wedding to Dion Giannarelli, where she received backlash online after arriving three hours late because she was unhappy with her makeup.

In an exclusive chat with Yahoo Lifestyle, however, the 33-year-old bride insists that people don’t know what really happened behind the scenes during filming.

“There have definitely been a few things being exaggerated,” she reveals, adding that it was “quite overwhelming” watching the wedding air on TV.

“I was not three hours late and it was not my fault. I don’t get to know what time the wedding starts, no one’s like, ‘Your wedding will be at 1pm, you have hair and makeup at 10am’. It’s all taken care of by production.

“When I asked how much time we had and they said ‘We should’ve been there an hour ago’, I had no idea.”

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In the episode, Carolina was extremely dissatisfied with the work of the show’s makeup artist and proceeded to wash her cheeks and re-apply her foundation.

The Brazilian-born participant admits she thought viewers were going to empathise with the stressful situation rather than attack her on social media for being ‘entitled’ and ‘inconsiderate’.

“I'm trying to stay away from the comments, but I actually had a feeling that a lot of women would be able to relate, like if they had paid for makeup and didn’t like it,” she says.

“Or they would even be able to understand that it’s my wedding day and I didn’t have a makeup trial. Plus, it’s not just your wedding, but with a guy that’s never seen you before and it’s his first impression of you.

“On top of that, it's on TV! It's your first appearance on TV so you want to look your best. So I did think a lot of women would be a bit more understanding but all I got was slammed for being late, which I was not in control of.”

'It is what it is'

In addition to the makeup controversy, Carolina points out that it wasn’t her fault her ‘husband’ and the other couples attending the wedding had to wait around for so long.

“Poor Dion had to stand and all the guests had to sit on their chairs for three hours when all of production would have known that we hadn’t even left the hotel yet,” she remarks.

“They could’ve just let everyone chill and once I was approaching they could’ve stood up. So I’m like, how was this all my fault?”

While she acknowledges that producers “twisted” certain elements of the big day “to make a storyline”, Carolina says she isn’t upset about her on-screen portrayal.

“It is what it is. You sign on knowing that it’s a TV show and things will be edited and might come across more exaggerated than it actually was,” she says.

“I’m not too mad at it to be honest. I was aware that this could happen anyway, it’s all fine. At least at this point, I’m still cool with everything.”

Married At First Sight airs at 7pm on Sunday and 7:30pm on Monday to Wednesday on Channel Nine and 9Now.

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