'You're a character': MAFS star's shocking admission

Married At First Sight stars Connie Crayden and Mishel Karen shocked fans on Friday during an Instagram Live chat where they revealed they were "characters on a TV show".

Connie warned her followers who might be interested in signing up for the show, "It's not just heroes and villains. You are characters on a TV show. You play a character on a TV show. That I cannot stress enough."

"You're a real person but you are still a character. With some creative editing they can make you look however they want.

"Just because you're not a villain doesn't mean you cant be ported in a negative way," she added.

Connie went on to say that she wished the show was more like Big Brother with the cameras rolling 24 hours a day, seven days a week, because her most natural interactions with 'husband' Jonethen Musulin happened off camera.

"I kind of wish it was like Big Brother and there were cameras rolling 24/7, because when the cameras were off and there were no producers around and it was just Johnnie and I cooking dinner together, or sitting on the couch, watching telly together, those conversations were were having then and there, that was real.

"And that's what I wish people would see. Not the make your seventh cup of tea for the day and sit at the table and talk about everyone else."

Mishel and Connie went on to reveal the ways the producers would set them up to chat to other contestants in a way that would cause friction.

"They wouldn't let me have a cup of tea with you. They'd bring in someone else you don't want to talk to," Mishel admitted, adding that she had to get special permission to hang out with Connie.

Mishel then surprised fans by saying she rarely spent time with 'husband' Steve Burley, "You don't spend a lot of time off camera with your partner. They don't always want to spend time with you and you don't always want to spend time with them."

The women then went on to say they wished they hadn't gone on the show now that they know the reality of it all.

Connie explained, "Knowing what I know now, about what really goes on behind the scenes, and what their real intentions are, I wouldn't have done it."

She added that she went into the show quite blind and should have known more about it before applying.

"I didn't do my homework beforehand. I wasn't full prepared for what I was getting myself into. Knowing what I know now, wouldn't have done it," she said.

Mishel said that she thought "a lot" of the 2020 series cast "would feel that way".

She said, "Even knowing all of you guys, and having you in my heart and my life, I would not do it again to myself.

"I don't think that I needed that experience, at all. I'm going to feel the repercussions of it for a few years."

Mishel continued "Some things have really affected me. And brought up things that I didn't really want to remember."

Both Mishel and Connie split up with their 'husbands' in the final vow renewals.

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