MAFS star reveals sneaky way producers create dinner party drama: 'Puppet'

It’s hard to deny that Married At First Sight’s dinner parties are the most entertaining episodes of the reality show. In the past the weekly get-togethers have featured wine being thrown, cheating scandals being born, and rivalries being formed through shouting matches across the table - all while the experts share their commentary from the room next door.

Former MAFS bride Lauren Dunn has now lifted the lid on the popular series and revealed to Yahoo Lifestyle what it’s really like to attend the infamous dinner parties. From how long filming goes for, to whether producers tell participants what to say, here are all the answers to the behind-the-scenes questions viewers have always wanted to know.

How long do the dinner parties go for?

Lauren explains that on her season the first dinner party went for the longest because the couples didn’t have much to share, but they became much shorter as the season progressed and the drama ramped up.

“Nothing had happened [in week one] except for a few hiccups on people's honeymoon, so it was really boring and we filmed that one until like four in the morning. The next week when things started to happen, we started to wrap earlier like 11pm or midnight,” she details.

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“Some dinner parties we even wrapped at like 10pm, because so much popped off that [the producers] got what they needed and they were like, ‘Alright!’. Literally, the producers come out and just say, ‘Okay, cut! We're done!’ in the middle of a conversation like, ‘We’re done, we don't need you anymore. You can go home’.

“It tends to get cut when it's starting to escalate a bit too far because they want to voxie everyone and get everyone's opinions when they're really heated.”

When do participants film their voxies?

Lauren says participants are regularly pulled out of the dinner party to film a voxie, which is a casual piece-to-camera interview used to get immediate reactions in the moment.

“So we have the cocktail party and then after that, everyone breaks for voxies. And then we go into the dinner party and everyone voxies after the dinner party,” she shares.

“But during the dinner party, sometimes people get pulled out like Jamie [Marinos]. So Jamie’s voxies would have just been after the dinner party. They would have asked her about the entire night and they've just used her snippets throughout the episode.

“Most people's voxies are really boring, there's only a few people that say things that are worthy of interrupting the footage for some commentary. Most of the dudes are boring, they don't have good one-liners, so you'll see the same people.”

How do producers influence the drama?

Lauren admits that she was often pulled aside by producers at the dinner parties and encouraged to bring up certain topics to stir the pot.

“So I'll get a little tap on the shoulder like, ‘Come out here’ and they’ll say, ‘What do you think about this? You've said this before, why don’t you mention it now?’. And I'll either say yes or no,” she recalls.

“People want to see entertaining things, they don’t want to see us standing around talking about what we did on the weekend. People need to realise these things. And this is why it infuriates me when people say, ‘The producer did this or that’. It's like, you didn't have to.

“Do you know how many times a producer would say, ‘What do you think of this? Do you think this?’ and I'd say, ‘No, I don't think that’. And even if I did, I'm not saying that because that's a d**khead thing to say and I don't want to look like a d**khead. Sometimes I have d**khead thoughts, but I have a limit. So if you don't have a limit and you are just being a puppet, that's on you. Sorry!”

Where do the couples stay before the first dinner party?

Perhaps the most secretive part of MAFS’ dinner parties is where the participants stay between their honeymoon and the first dinner party because they haven’t moved into their accommodation yet.

Lauren reveals that she and her ‘husband’ Jono McCullough stayed in a hotel in Sydney the night before the first dinner party, but most couples actually went back home after filming the honeymoon.

“So for example, Sara [Mesa] and Tim [Calwell]’s wedding was one of the first ones so they both flew back to their homes and didn't see each other again until the night before the dinner party,” she explains.

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“For Jono and I, we were the last wedding and our honeymoon was only for two nights because we were last. So we did that and then we got the plane to Sydney, checked into our hotel and spent that night in the hotel, and then the next day was the dinner party. But a lot of other couples went home.”

“I don't know if everyone did that night in the hotel or if it was just Jono and I because we never went home, but I'm pretty sure we all got to spend the night together in a hotel before the dinner party.”

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