MAFS' strongest couple set for 'unexpected and controversial' split

We’re just a few episodes into the new season of Married At First Sight and there are already a handful of couples forming strong romantic relationships.

So far viewers are rooting for Lyndall and Cameron, Sandy and Dan, and Tahnee and Oliver to go all the way in the experiment after they felt sparks and built connections at their weddings.

However, one of the show’s producers has now revealed that fans are in for a shock when one of this year’s strongest couples fails to make it to the finish line.

Tara McWilliams - who served as the executive producer of the hit reality series for six years before stepping into the role of director of content at Endemol Shine Australia last year - tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the unnamed pair will end “in quite an unexpected and controversial way”.

“I think sometimes the distraction of the group can impact the success of a relationship, and we've seen it time and time again,” she explains.

“This year we've got some relationships that start off really strong. There’s one in particular that goes from strength to strength and we’re like, this is an absolute sure thing. There are so many things like tick, tick, tick, and it doesn't. At the final hurdle, it falls in quite an unexpected and controversial way.”

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She continues: “And even now I'm thinking, I've got an opinion of who screwed that relationship up. And I’m thinking, that should have been a really happy, successful relationship, and it probably would have been.

“But I think the impact of the group and expectations that people bring into the experiment that they wouldn't normally carry outside of the experiment get the better of them. So you just can't predict it.”

'More direct in their feedback than ever before'

While last year’s season of MAFS didn’t produce any successful couples that are still together today, relationship expert John Aiken tells Yahoo Lifestyle that there isn’t much Mel Schilling, Alessandra Rampolla and himself can do to ensure a couple’s success.

“There are so many ingredients that go into a successful relationship and when we put these two huge personalities together, and they are big, you then have to sit back and watch what happens,” he says.

“Will it be chemistry? Will they get along with the parents? Will they be trustworthy? What about their past baggage or relationship patterns, how does that interfere with everything? And so as a result of all of that, you actually don't know whether or not they're going to get over the line.

“What you do though is you assess them in a very thorough and intensive process, then you put them in and you watch like everybody else.”

John went on to say that the show’s experts are “more direct in their feedback now than ever before” this season so the couples have “every chance to try and turn it around”.

“Some of our strongest matches that we're so excited about fall apart early, but you don't take it personally,” he continues. “You’ve just got a look at it philosophically and do your best at what you're dealing with in front of you, and then you hope that they’re able to work their way through it.

“The couples that have actually flourished and gone on like Cam and Jules or Johnny and Kerry, they have been in the experiment, they’ve been thrown in the challenges, but they don't turn against each other. They become tighter and more unified. And that's what you're looking for.”

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