Now in its ninth season, Married at First Sight Australia has seen more than its fair share of controversies.
While wine-slinging, glass-smashing and wars of words make for some spicy entertainment, no drama can compare to that of a salacious cheating scandal.
Season upon season, the experts poorly match hopeful singles with partners who are literally the worst fit for each other and naturally, some contestants opt to stray from their marital agreements.
Now, some of the experiment’s extramarital affairs have been downright laughable, but others have had us hot under the collar (and red in the face). And so, because we’re suckers for punishment, we’ve ranked each Married at First Sight cheating scandal in line with a trusty Spice-O-Metre.
Keep scrolling to see where the MAFS affairs rank from plain…ish to extra hot!
Carolina Santos and Daniel Holmes — Season Nine
Spice-O-Metre: HOT
Oh boy, where do we even start with this one.
Let’s set the scene: It’s MAFS 2022, we are in the gym (where all the worst stories start) and Daniel Holmes and Carolina Santos are engaging in a flirty *fitness session*.
By this stage, Daniel’s expert-assigned partner Jessica Seracino had already waved buh-bye to the cursed experiment. However, Carolina’s husband, Gucci-loving king Dion Giannarelli, was very much still there and TRYING to form a connection with his bride.
After an extremely hard-to-watch affair, Carolina and Daniel decided to show up to the sixth Commitment Ceremony of the season TOGETHER and requested to re-enter the experiment as a new couple.
Dion was heartbroken, the experts were stunned and the other contestants were pissed AF. The bulk of Dion’s castmates even walked out of the ceremony in protest.
Obviously, they said a big hell to the no to them re-joining the show.
It may have been worth it, though because at the time of writing the adulterous pair are still going strong!
Coco Stedman and Cam Dunne — Season Eight
Spice-O-Metre: LEMON & HERB
Married at First Sight Australia 2021 was so drama-packed that somehow a cheating scandal between Coco Stedman and Cam Dunne was one of the least interesting things to happen during the experiment.
Coco, who was paired with outspoken groom Sam Carraro, and Cam, matched with Samantha Harvey, hit it off and began a short but salacious affair behind their partners’ backs.
The rendezvous saw the two contestants share a kiss in Cam’s apartment… and then Coco exposed their infidelity at one very explosive dinner party.
Samantha actually gave Coco her blessing to explore a connection with her husband, whilst Coco’s hubby was not so forgiving and picked a (justified) fight with Cam.
At the time, however, she was not aware that the pair had pashed. This was only revealed at the season’s reunion special.
Hayley Vernon and Michael Goonan — Season Seven
Spice-O-Metre: PLAIN…ISH
MAFS 2020‘s resident cheating scandal occurred when Michael Goonan and Hayley Vernon snogged on a night out.
No relationship or major affair came of their kiss, however, Hayley’s partner David Cannon was gutted and Michael’s wife, Stacey Hampton blew up at Hayley and Hayley ALONE over the pash.
“Why were you even out with my husband alone?” Stacey exploded at the Dinner Party. “You’ve just ruined a relationship. Yes, he’s a d*ckhead and he parties but you’ve taken that for granted. You were encouraging vulnerable Michael.” Uhhhh, okay?
Sam Ball and Ines Basic — Season Six
Spice-O-Metre: MEDIUM
Season six of MAFS started with a bang – and a cheating scandal!
After WEEKS of secret text messages and flirty meet-cutes, Ines Basic and Sam Ball hooked up behind their respective partners’ backs.
This came after Ines’ partner Bronson Norrish said his new wife was “acting like a c**t* at the very first Commitment Ceremony of the season.
Speaking to TV Week after the show wrapped, Sam’s ‘wife’ Elizabeth Sobinoff said the pair “belong with each other”.
“They would act sweet to my face and then tear me apart behind my back. I think they’re disgusting,” she added.
This cheating scandal was definitely a bit yikes, but loses points on the Spice-O-Metre for appearing set up AF.
Jessika Power and Dan Webb — Season Six
Spice-O-Metre: EXTRA HOT
Season six of MAFS was clearly cursed because another cheating scandal arose between Jessika Power and Dan Webb.
Jessika, who was relatively uninterested in her hubby Mick Gould, took a liking to Dan after he entered as an intruder alongside Tamara Joy.
The pair hit it off at their first mutual Dinner Party and eventually admitted their affair to the rest of the cast in a wild AF Commitment Ceremony.
In a MAFS first, the pair were allowed to reenter the experiment as a new couple —which certainly wouldn’t have happened on new expert, Alessandra Rampolla‘s watch.
The pair later broke up live on TV after Dan discovered during the reunion episode that Jess had also propositioned fellow participant, Nic Jovanovic.
Dean Wells and Davina Rankin — Season Five
Spice-O-Metre: HOT
Somehow, Married at First Sight Australia managed to avoid a major cheating scandal for its first few seasons.
The show’s clean streak was broken in 2018 by season five contestants Dean Wells and Davina Rankin.
Dean and Davina found themselves in a saucy cheating scandal after hooking up behind their expert-appointed partners Ryan Gallagher and Tracey Jewel‘s backs.
Hidden out of sight from the other participants, Davina (now-infamously) told Dean “I feel like you and I like each other more than anyone else in that room.”
Davina and Dean decided to continue on MAFS together. But Dean had second thoughts and ultimately chose to stay with his “wife”.
“The plan was to come back into the experiment together but at the last minute everyone screwed me,” Davina said. “[Dean] had decided to stay with his Mrs but he outed that we’d been doing this whole thing.”
“Then Ryan pretended that he was really upset because ‘we were getting along so well’, but we hated each other.”
Ai ai ai!
Jonathan Troughton and Scarlett Cooper – MAFS Season Four
Spice-o-metre: PLAIN…ISH
In season four, MAFS had its first cheating-adjacent scandal after Jonathan Troughton was caught texting Scarlett Cooper by his wife Cheryl Maitland.
The pair exchanged flirty messages, but it never evolved into anything more.
Cheryl was (rightfully) still pissed and told her hubby: “I hate disloyal people. I heard you last night saying you got paired with the wrong person. And then you swapped numbers and you have been talking to each other.”
The rejected bride later had a second shot at love after Jono’s texting faux-pas, reentering the experiment with groom Andrew ‘Jonesy’ Jones.
But let’s be real, this was NOTHING compared to the MAFS cheating scandals that followed it.
Want even more Married at First Sight Australia goss? Listen to episode 160 of the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto below!
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