Married At First Sight's Holly tells all about her experience on the show

Holly Greenstein opens up about her 'marriage' to Andrew Davis and what viewers didn't get to see on TV.

Video transcript

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: There are always questions from us cast members. Did they throw the right one for us in the mix, but then pair us up with someone else?

- It has been a journey, watching you on TV. What was it that made you want to sign up to "Married at First Sight."

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: I think the last season I watched was the Martha and Michael and the Jules and Cam. That was kind of my impression of the show-- the happy stories and the journey. And I kind of just thought, oh, like, you know, this is just an extreme way of dating, you know.

- And then, we get to the wedding. What is the first impression when he turns around and you see Andrew there at the altar?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: The production had me so convinced that they'd found this incredible guy. I had my makeup done. I felt great. And I started to walk down the aisle.

And he turned around, and my heart just dropped. He kind of had this cheesy smile and an air of fakeness around him. And at that moment, I said to myself, Holly, give him a chance. I did not write him off on the first day.

But he actually admitted on camera, but it just wasn't edited in that he wrote me off on the first day. And I think he realized on day one that I just wasn't his person.

- What did you ask for when you told the experts about your [INAUDIBLE] person?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: For someone who would be on my team. [CHUCKLES] Someone who wanted a family. And I got it wrong.

- Do you think there could have been an aspect of the experts or the producers pairing you for the drama?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: There are always questions from us cast members. Did they throw the right one for us in the mix, but then pair us up with someone else? It's probably the case.

- So we go to the honeymoon now. Things are intense. What was the general vibe heading into that?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: So you know, we're starting to get to know each other, and he's being warm to me. But again, you have to know, we are surrounded by producers, cameramen, and soundies the whole time. There's a group vibe the whole entire time. So he's being warm to me, but he's very well aware that he's on camera.

- There was the moment he walks into the bathroom, drops his robe in front of you, and he's completely naked. That's got to be confronting, right?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: Yeah. The edit that you saw of the honeymoon was completely out of context.

- OK.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: My producer set up a bathtub scene, and I all but begged to not do the bathtub scene. I tried to express to my producer that I wasn't comfortable with it. And you could see my face was flushed, and I was nervous, and I didn't want to do it.

My producer-- I don't know how she convinced me to do the bathtub scene, and it was not flagged with me that he was going to go in naked.

- Oh my gosh.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: Of course, I'm 37 years old. I've been in relationships before. But that was not respectful. This is a produced TV show. I did have a great relationship with my producer, and I understand she had a job to do. But there were moments, for example, that you could see how uncomfortable I was, where I didn't want to be in that bathtub.

- And then, we get into confessions a week, which is just so many intense moments. Was there anything that we missed from confessions week or from that photo challenge in particular?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: That whole weekend after that challenge, he ignored me all weekend, and that's why, when you see the photo challenge then come up, he just was so disconnected to me and made me feel so uncomfortable in our space. He tried to push me on an issue, and I said, let's just do this challenge at hand.

But he was actually trying to deflect, because it was quite clear that I was not his number one. If you go back to all the footage, you will not see Andrew yell at me once. They really made sure that he didn't look that bad.

Still, people could see through it, and people could see that he was gaslighting me and trying to make me look bad with the other people. Just 'cause you didn't see it didn't mean it didn't happen.

- Obviously, there was the moment where you rightfully blew up at him, and then that part made-- that part made it into the trailers, like, one of the major scenes. So when the show hasn't aired yet and you do get that first trailer, what is your perspective on-- oh, no, is this how I'm going to be portrayed? Is that going to be blown up into a major moment? What do you think?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: I just assumed that it was going to be clear why I blew up.

- In context.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: In context. I think I was portrayed a little crazy or a little unsettled. And that was because there was really not that deep context there of how gaslit I really was.

- We get to the first commitment ceremony, and you have to make your decision whether to stay or leave.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: I wanted to leave. They didn't want us to leave. It was clear that we had an interesting storyline. There was a clear sense, obviously, that he wanted to write, leave, and if I had written, leave, our journey would be over.

I feel like there was a little bit of influence, shall I say, from my producer to stay. And so I wrote, stay, and obviously, you write your decision before the couch. And what I actually said-- I don't know if this is aired or not, because sometimes what really happened and what was aired is always kind of blurred.

I actually said the day after, had I known that the couch had panned out the way it was going to, I would have written, leave, no matter what. No one could have convinced me otherwise. He ripped shreds off me on the couch. He was just unkind, gaslighting, blaming me.

She did this. She said that. Even the experts were like, you clearly don't want to be with her. What are you doing here? When he wrote, leave, crossed out, wrote, stay, they're like, why are you staying? What did you write, stay, for? Like, what for? Clearly, you don't like her. So the first couch was hard.

- Yeah. What was your opinion on the experts and what they had to say about that then?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: The experts would ask me a question, and I would answer. And he would then butt in. And the experts actually pulled him up and said, stop. Let her speak.

- And the second week, then, it seemed like you had kind of patched things up or you were kind of resetting it zero, from an audience perspective. But what was that like for you after that commitment ceremony?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: I went back, and it was 4:00 AM. And I messaged my producer, and I said something along the lines of, if I had realized that that would have been that disgusting, I would have written, leave. I'm done. And I think you see 10 seconds of my rant. And I'm basically like, I'm done.

- Yeah.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: I said to my producer, I'm done. That was disgusting. I was treated like shit. And my producer ask me, you know, wait until the next day. And she said, look, he wants to apologize to you. So he said this whole apology speech, which you see 1% of.

- Mm.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: In the kitchen, and that speech on camera, he said that he wrote me off on day one. He admitted that he did not treat me well. And he said, I'd like to move forward.

And I basically said, look, in a very friendly way, you know, I'll move forward. I'll do the tasks with you, but I was really cautious. I didn't really want to be there. It was just kind of being held together by sticky tape and production.

So I think they gave us very basic tasks. And after the hug, he said, how was that for you? And I said, I didn't feel anything. It was awkward. He made my skin crawl by that point.

Because I did not validate him, he started yelling at me. And that's when I said, here is the door.

- There was the rumor that you and Andrew were paid extra money to stay on the show. Do we want to talk about that?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: I certainly was not paid any more money to stay on the show. You know what? For all I know, there may be some truth in Andrew being paid money to stay. Because he certainly did not want to be there. It was so clear he did not want to be there.

- Well, we get to the dinner party, and Andrew comes in first. How does that work with you being held back? Are you told, don't come in? What's that like?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: Yeah, we're all held in a tent, and we're told when to go in.

- OK.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: What wasn't aired was that there was a little naughty off-screen party between all of the cast members except for me and Selin. So they're off having a cheeky drink. They snuck into someone's room. I think Andrew badmouthed me at this little sneaky off-camera party, and so everyone had an opinion of me. And the producers couldn't work out why everyone's opinion of me suddenly changed. Went from witnessing me being torn to shreds on the couch to, all of a sudden, thinking I'm the trouble. And so obviously, to make the storyline work, they had me walk in sort of last, and him walking one of the first, and him say his piece. They didn't tell him what to say. The producers just knew that he would just try to gaslight the group, and he did. He went in. He gaslit the group, being like, I'm trying so hard. And I walked in, and it was like everyone had a bullet for me.

- How do you react when you're public enemy number one now for no reason?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: Yeah. That week was hard, obviously, because I didn't want to be there, but I was just going through the motions of that week. When Olivia came at me, almost accusing me of being the problem, it actually was a kick to the guts. And obviously, I'm looking like I'm crazy, but it just didn't make any sense to me.

- Yeah. Did he tell you that he wasn't going to show up to the next commitment ceremony then?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: I'm glad he didn't come, because it allowed me a moment to have a voice.

- Yeah.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: So I was pretty destroyed by then.

- Yeah.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: It was sad that they didn't support me. And it was sad that even on screen, they didn't get to see, really, what happened. But we all know that you only see 1%. So I did have a few cast members reach out and go, oh my god, Holly, I didn't realize, and we're so sorry we weren't there to support you. So I did have a lot of support after the fact.

- With the reunion, did you expect that Andrew was not going to show up? What was the vibe?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: In terms of production, I think he had brought too much toxicity. And I think-- I think for a duty of care, I think it was just best he didn't come back.

I heard rumors that he was not invited back. Again, I don't-- you don't get-- you don't know anything for certain. But I'm pretty sure he wasn't.

- What was that like, watching it all back on TV and the way that you were portrayed and edited?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: I felt like, yeah, he-- Andrew wasn't shown how he really was. It was hard. Yeah, it was embarrassing, like, being shown being in a bathtub with someone that I didn't really like.

- Did the producers give you any indication of how you would be portrayed or edited?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: I honestly thought that I would have been portrayed less crazy, and maybe it may have made more sense. I really thought that they would show him how he was. I didn't think that the edit would be like that.

- I guess if you could go back and do the whole experience again, what would you change? Do you have any regrets?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: That second night of the honeymoon when I realized Andrew was not a nice person, I should have packed my bags and left. If someone said to me that they were going to go on the show, I would say, go in with your eyes open.

- Would you consider going again?

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: Oh, no.

- OK.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: Yeah, no. I'm in a very positive relationship now. I'm in a relationship, not a fairy tale. So we are-- we're really strong together. The MAFS chapter is certainly done. It's in the box. The lid is closed.

There is string around it. Chain and a padlock. It's done.

- Good vibes only.

HOLLY GREENSTEIN: Good vibes only.