MAFS' Jacqui Burfoot responds to backlash over 'fake' $200 detail in homestays

She’s been accused of ‘fake crying’ throughout this year’s season of Married At First Sight, and now Jacqui Burfoot has been called out for ‘lying’ about her Manly apartment during this week’s homestays. Jacqui’s ‘husband’ Ryan Donnelly took to Instagram on Tuesday to claim that her residence shown on TV was actually an Airbnb booked for one night only.

“Her actual place was a rental apartment with two other housemates,” he wrote. “They couldn't fit the camera crew in there, her bedroom was tiny, the housemates’ stuff was everywhere and production would've had to ask them to leave and stay elsewhere for the filming.”

An insider revealed to Daily Mail that the luxurious two-story rental was booked by producers for $200 a night, and Ryan and Jacqui were “instructed not to make any mention that it was a fake house” and pretend it was hers.

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Jacqui explains why she used a 'fake' apartment

Jacqui has since taken to social media to share photos and videos of her actual Manly apartment for any “nosy” viewers and explained why she decided to use a rental property on the show.

“As a single lady, security and privacy is important to me and my friends. I didn’t feel comfortable opening my home up to all of Australia,” she wrote on her Instagram Story.

“Just so you know the ‘apartments’ the couples live in are actually also decorated hotel rooms. Homestays is about getting to know someone in their usual neighbourhood doing usual activities. If you care about the actual homes you should watch a show like The Block, not MAFS lol.”

Why do participants use 'fake' apartments on the show?

2024 groom Jack Dunkley tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the show also rented an apartment for his homestay with Tori Adams last season because he didn’t allow production to film in his actual home.

“I had multiple interviews with production about having homestays inside my apartment. They were trying to [pressure] me into giving them permission for ‘real life insight’. To put it simply I said absolutely not,” he recalls.

“Tori and I have had nothing but fabricated toxicity since being on the MAFS set and production is not welcome inside my home. I vowed to invite Tori into my home once the s**t show was wrapped and our experience wouldn’t be jeopardised, hence MAFS rented a cheap apartment a few blocks down from my home.”

Did anyone else use a 'fake' apartment this season?

While many fans assumed Jamie Marinos also used a ‘fake’ apartment for her homestay in Melbourne because of her minimalist aesthetic, she confirms to Yahoo Lifestyle that this wasn’t the case.

“Oh my god, do you know what's so funny? So my mum gives me s**t all the time, she's like, ‘It looks like a display home!’. Because I hate things, like, I hate things, so I'm very minimalistic. And yes, I don't have a dining table so sue me, but I like to think of the open space as a dance floor,” she laughs.

“But my apartment is like, my pride and joy. Definitely my apartment. All my crystal stuff and books where the TV was is definitely mine, and all my random food and everything. People did say it looked like an Airbnb, but I'll take the compliment that it looks so clean girl aesthetic. I have a lot of people that can attest I live in that apartment.”

She adds, however, that she’s seen plenty of comments online from people who recognised her apartment and now know where she lives.

“It's actually funny, the apartment I'm in, it's like a square and there's a group on Facebook and people obviously watched the episode, and they're like, ‘Oh my God, Jamie lives in our building’,” she details.

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“And people were commenting, ‘Yeah, I see her on the street all the time’, ‘Yeah, she's always in the lobby’, and I'm like, oh people know where I live now!”

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