MAFS' Jacqui Burfoot reveals unseen moment she tried to quit the Channel 9 show

It’s no secret that Married At First Sight’s Jacqui Burfoot and Ryan Donnelly are no longer together. Not only have they each been making disparaging comments about one another on social media, but Jacqui has also gone public with her relationship with Clint Rice.

Even though their storyline has already been spoiled, viewers have been left with plenty of questions about their tumultuous journey on the show. In particular, many people have wondered how they’ve remained in the experiment for so long - and why they stayed until Final Vows.

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Jacqui has now shed some light on her MAFS experience in a tell-all interview with Yahoo Lifestyle, revealing that she actually tried to quit the show in an unseen moment.

The 29-year-old explains that before Beth Kelly and Teejay Halkias’ wedding where she had a breakdown in front of her co-stars, she was “emotionally unstable” and “not capable” of making any decisions for herself.

“I got to the point where I was so low that I'd been moved into my own room, I was heavily medicated, and I was basically refusing to film because I kept crying and I couldn't do anything,” she details. “[I was] just being spoon-fed basically. They wanted to make sure I was eating so they'd buy me food to send to my room to eat it.

“I was in the mind frame of, ‘I'm broken. I can't move. I just want to sleep. I want you to leave me alone. I don't know what's going on. I feel confused. I need to process things and I don't know what I'm doing’.”

Jacqui reveals the moment she packed her bags to leave

Jacqui says she didn’t consider quitting the show at that point because it “just didn’t feel like an option at all”, however, things changed in the final few weeks of filming.

“There was one point right towards the end of the experiment where I actually packed my bags,” she shares. “I was bawling my eyes out and I just couldn't stop crying. I'd been crying all night long until 3am and they kept coming in and telling me to sleep.

“I was just distraught. There were so many tears. I went through half a box of tissues and I said to them, ‘I can't do this anymore’.”

Despite being ready to quit the show, Jacqui claims that a producer encouraged her to stay in the experiment so she could “leave on a high”.

“My heart dropped because I was like, for f**k’s sake. After all I've been through, I can't leave looking like I'm leaving because I'm not accepting Ryan. Like, this is f**ked,” she recalls. “It was just really tough for me. I felt like I was constantly being manipulated to stay because they obviously want you to stay. So it didn't really ever seem like a viable option to just leave.”

Jacqui admits she was 'not mentally well' while filming the show

Jacqui went on to say that she’s found it “extremely difficult” watching the show on TV and seeing how elements of her storyline have been removed or edited.

“I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, I was suffering. And given what they know was going on, to turn that into making me look like a laughing stock and almost make it look like I'm fake crying is kind of a sick joke, really,” she remarks.

“It makes me feel compassionate for the woman on screen, but also that's not quite how it went so it's hard to even relate to what's on screen. It just kind of feels gross and sickening.”

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She adds that her intention is now to call out the show and “step into [her] power”, regardless of how hard that might be.

“This is embarrassing for me to say, but I was not mentally well. It’s not funny, it's not a joke, and that's a really tough thing to do because it’s very humiliating and it feels like I'm a laughing stock,” she says. “So it's very challenging on myself. It is hard, it's not easy. It's very embarrassing and a lot of people would probably just not want to get out of bed ever again.”

Mental health support for yourself or a loved one can be found by calling Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978, or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800. Online support is available via Beyond Blue.

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