MAFS' Jonethen was about to leave the show. Then he made a 'secret contract' with producers.

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Apparently in the world of Married at First Sight, there are contracts and then there are ‘secret contracts’.

And look, we get it. You sign up to get married to the expert-vetted love of your life (and maybe gain a couple of thousand Instagram followers) but during the process, you realise you’ve made a grave mistake. As they say: marriage is hard but a reality-TV marriage is harder… or something like that.

According to MAFS husband, Jonethen Musulin, there is scope to change things around.

Former MAFS star, Martha Kalifatidis shares her advice for her five-year-old self. Post continues below.

If you’re watching the show, then you’ll know that the Gold Coast FIFO worker isn’t too invested in his marriage with Connie Craydon. In fact, he’s opted to ‘leave’ during the last two commitment ceremonies.

Speaking to New Idea, Jonethen said his father suffered a stroke during filming and he tried to leave the experiment on multiple occasions but wasn’t allowed to.

“I told producers that I was leaving and that there was nothing they could do about it,” he said.

While we don’t know exactly when he made the request, the producers apparently needed him to stay as so many couples had already dropped out of the experiment. To date, out of the original 10 couples, only four remain, plus Lizzie and Seb and KC and Drew who came in as intruders mid-way through the season.

“They had already lost so many contestants so that’s when they said to me, ‘What can we do to make you stay?’” he continued.

“I got the terms of my contract rewritten halfway through.”

Later in the experiment, Connie also wanted to leave, however, the producers managed to change her mind.

“[Two producers] pulled Connie aside for over two hours and they made her rewrite what she had written on her card,” another contestant who chose to remain anonymous told New Idea.

“They stood over her and put pressure on her to write ‘stay’ instead of ‘leave’.”

David Cannon also made a ‘contract’ with producers.

Former groom, David Cannon (who was married to Hayley Vernon), has also spoken about his contract.

In the aftermath of the cheating scandal which saw Hayley ‘hook up’ with Stacey Hampton’s husband, Michael Goonan, David was persuaded by producers to stay for an extra week if they allowed him to leave at the next Commitment Ceremony.

Speaking on news.com.au‘s podcast, Not Here to Make Friends, the truck driver said that he while he was suffering poor mental health, the producers still “wouldn’t let me go home”.

“You can’t leave … I’m telling you the honest reality of the nightmare that was in there,” he said.

“I begged to go home, they wouldn’t let me.

“They fed me lines of, you know, ‘This relationship is toxic for me, it’s toxic for Hayley, it’s toxic for other couples’ – the truth was that I was on the verge of a mental breakdown.”

 

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A post shared by Hayley (@hayleyvernon_) on Feb 19, 2020 at 12:20am PST

Although Hayley wrote ‘stay’ during their final commitment ceremony, the couple were forced off the show by the experts, John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Dr Trisha Stratford.

“It is very, very unhealthy what you’ve got between each other. It is toxic,” said John at the time.

“There are certain standards that we’ve got to adhere to.”

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