To catch up on all the Married at First Sight recaps and gossip, check out the MAFS hub page. We've got you covered.
We have watched one episode of MAFS this year and there is already a cheating/secret girlfriend scandal because OF COURSE THERE IS.
ICYMI: one of the new brides, Bronte, was told by a friend at her wedding that her new (fake) husband, Harrison, was seeing someone on the outside and he had planned to see her during/after filming the show.
Read more: Mamamia recaps Married at First Sight: When you 'cheat' in the very first episode.
A whole mess. During EPISODE ONE.
But of course, things are not always as they seem on reality TV (gasp!) and the weddings were filmed months ago. A lot of information has emerged since, including the identity of the mystery girl and further proof that the reality TV scene in Australia is... honestly a bit incestuous. Like, how do these people all know each other? It hurts my brain.
Anyway, here's what we know:
Harrison's 'secret girlfriend' is a contestant from The Bachelors.
In a very weird coincidence, or further proof that Australian reality TV stars are required by law to only date other Australian reality TV stars, it turns out the '20-year-old Harrison had on the outside' is 21-year-old former Bachie star Abby Miller.
The So Dramatic! podcast revealed the reality crossover, and an Instagram post from Abby while the MAFS episode aired really says it all.
Peep that tea emoji.
Harrison and Abby had been seeing each other for a few weeks before his (fake) wedding, but he says she wasn't 'waiting'.
According to the So Dramatic! podcast Harrison and Abby had been "sleeping together for about three weeks, right up until the morning of his MAFS wedding" (which explains that pretty sus suitcase photo).
'A source close to Abby' told So Dramatic! their relationship had only been going "a few weeks, but they were meeting up regularly and things were going really well" adding "it was pretty serious between them".
Harrison has a sliiightly different story though. He appeared on Nova's Fitzy & Wippa on Tuesday morning, confirming that he and Abby had dated before filming but denying that she was 'waiting' for him to finish filming.
"Abby was not waiting for me on the outside. She’s got her own life," he said.
"She knew exactly what I was doing. I was very upfront about it. We actually said our goodbyes and that was a bit of time before I went into the experiment and got married."
He told the radio show he did not know Abby was talking to others about him, which is why he appeared so shocked during the opening episode.
"I made it 100 per cent clear to anyone that I was seeing before I went in there that look, 'this is what I'm doing. I'm giving this 100 per cent and thanks and goodbye', essentially," he said.
Abby's messages about Harrison... and The Bachelors' Jed.
The Daily Mail Australia obtained screenshots of Abby's messages in a group chat with other The Bachelors stars, which she... actually sort of roasts her Bach, Jed.
"Better than Jed," she said. "And more the age I go for."
It also obtained the messages shown on MAFS, including the photo of Harrison and the picture of his empty suitcase being packed the morning before his (fake) wedding to Bronte.
In other messages, Abby says Harrison invited her to hang out with his son and "he wants to talk when he gets back".
No seriously, everyone involved in this story is a reality star. Even Bronte's friend Jess.
And then there's Jess, the ~concerned friend~ who started all this drama.
Some viewers might've recognised her as Jessica Tomlinson, who starred on The Bachelors this year (but most probably did not because she was basically scrubbed from the show - more on that below).
On Fitzy & Wippa, Harrison suggested Jess was "trying to make the day" about herself.
"I think I was gonna wait until I was firmly in a relationship before I have to chat about who I am and my history and also my son," he said of how he'd of preferred things to play out.
"My son got brought up in a really negative way as well. And I really felt like that moment of explaining my private life was really ripped out from under me and done in such a negative way by this guest at the wedding who was clearly just trying to make the day about themselves and ruin our moment."
Actually, this went so far it caused drama between Channel 10 and Channel Nine.
If you watched Bach and didn't recognise Jess, then Channel 10 will be pleased because... that was precisely its plan.
Confused?
Well, Jess was technically cast in The Bachelors as one of Jed's bachelorettes. There's a promo pic of her and everything:
Now, obviously Channel Nine wouldn't want to mention a rival show, which is why all of this context about how Jess and Abby knew each other was left out of the episode (and according to a source who spoke to Yahoo, MAFS production company Endemol Shine Australia didn't even realise she was under contract with another show).
But Nine did tease the drama in ads featuring Jess ahead of the season, which caught The Bachelors production at Warner Bros off guard.
According to the Daily Mail, Channel 10 was "forced to make last-minute edits" to The Bachelors and remove Jess after learning about her MAFS cameo.
"Channel 10 and Warner Bros. are completely livid with the last-minute change after they noticed Nine was heavily featuring Jess in the ads for one of the MAFS weddings," the insider said.
The goal was to "make it look like she wasn't there" so she is "completely forgotten about" which I suppose they partially succeeded at.
Oof.
And all of that just from episode one... buckle up, it's going to be a long season.
Chelsea McLaughlin is Mamamia's Senior Entertainment Writer. For more pop culture takes, recommendations and sarcasm, you can follow her on Instagram.
Feature image: Channel Nine.
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