MAFS star sheds light on Sara's 'cheating scandal': 'Such a smoking gun'

It’s retreat week on MAFS! This was one of my favourite weeks filming in the experiment because it was basically free range and we could all run wild. Prior to this, all interactions were organised on camera but the retreat was the first opportunity we could do whatever we wanted and cameras were just hanging around. You might have noticed the drama really amps up during the retreat and I'm here for it!

But before we even got to the retreat, we saw a conflict between Michael and Stephen - which is so sad because I love these two. The drama centred around Stephen flirting with a hairstylist on the promo shoot (this is the day we take all those bride and groom images + gifs).

I just couldn’t look away and kept giggling at Michael’s shirt, it was just so iconic! I hope this is just a small speed bump in their relationship and it’s something they can work through.

Off to Byron we go...

Now to the retreat! I can’t help but be a tiny bit jealous that they got to go to Byron Bay this year and we ended up in Bargo. I was so freaked out during our retreat as I was convinced the house was haunted. But it was still such a fun time and I feel like we were finally able to get to know everyone in a non-forced environment.

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The location this year looks incredible and Byron is just such a beautiful spot. I was also loving Lucinda in her element - honestly, that woman is just incredible! We saw another side of Timothy which I think was beautiful to see; we’ve seen his hard exterior this whole time and I’ve loved seeing his more emotional side come through. I’m seriously enjoying seeing Lucinda and Timothy’s journey on the show. I was very unsure about these two but I’m keen to see where this breakthrough takes them.

Shocked and disappointed

It wouldn’t be retreat without some drama and I was just living for the trio of Timothy, Lauren and Sara. Timothy is loving getting involved and it’s so great to watch. We, of course, see Jack ruffle some more feathers and truly nothing this man does surprises me anymore. I have to say though, I was shocked and disappointed to see Jack’s "whale" comments and how this affected Tristan. It was so ignorant for him to say that, especially around someone who has expressed their feelings around body image AND from someone whose job is meant to be empowering people about their body.

'Such a smoking gun'

Now let’s get into the dinner party. We saw a (super dragged out) build-up this week that Eden had a secret that she was tossing up sharing with the group. This all comes to a head at the dinner party. Eden drops a bomb that Sara was seeing her ex over the weekend - asking Eden to borrow something nice to wear and then admitting to lying to Tim about where she was. This is such a smoking gun as we now know why she had a problem with Tim going through her phone - it’s clear she did have something to hide.

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I think the more shocking thing about this being exposed is that Sara admitted to her ex cheating on his girlfriend with her. This is even more disappointing knowing that Sara had expressed the hurt she felt having been cheated on but is now admitting to enabling that with the same ex who did this to her. It’s all very confusing, and I'm completely unsure what to believe at this point because the math ain't mathing!

I think what made the situation entirely worse was how Sara was being caught out by the different lies being told. I’m leaning towards something that did happen with the ex, which honestly makes me feel for Tim in this situation. I feel like they were just getting to a good place and this has just unraveled all of that progress.

The whole point of reality TV

I also want to share my thoughts on the sentiment around Eden and Jayden “starting drama for airtime”.

I think people are forgetting that this is MAFS, everything is about the drama and, realistically, anything the cast is doing should be on camera - it’s kind of the whole point of reality TV. The issue we found with our season is that so much happened off-camera, that it’s hard for the viewers to get a full understanding of what’s happening if it’s not shown.

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We were never allowed to socialise

Something I’ve been finding quite interesting this season is the amount of time the cast has been allowed to spend time off-camera which I think is why we are seeing some people closer than others. During filming, we were never allowed to socialise with any cast (except for your husband/wife) off-camera and we would get in trouble if we were caught doing so. It’s also so interesting to see the cast posting photos with each other because we were not allowed to do that especially if we were breaking the rules by hanging out too!

In our season, the cheating scandal between Claire and Adam happened off-camera and I felt it was hard for us and the audience to be sure what exactly happened because there were no cameras there to capture what went down. This caused a big stir with production because we weren’t allowed to be hanging out together and one of the biggest parts of the storyline wasn’t filmed. Not to mention it makes it harder for the audience to believe you because you don’t have anything else to back you up - just your word against someone else's.

Props to Eden

In this case with Sara, it’s hard for us to believe what she’s saying because there were no cameras there and also no one else to help back up her story.

I felt that Eden handled herself so well in this situation, and it must be hard to feel like you’re throwing your friend under the bus. However, my thoughts on this are, that if you’re truly a good friend to someone, you should call them out if they have done something you don’t agree with. I think that is healthy and you need to have people in your circle that are going to pull you up on things. I also feel like if your morals and values aren’t aligned with your friends, they probably aren’t your people.

The commitment ceremony is going to be an intense one this week, surely. I’m hoping the experts call out Jack for his comments (again) and I'm very intrigued to see what they say to Sara. There are so many questions I have about the situation so I'm dying to see what the experts have to say!

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