Several Married at First Sight Australia brides have come forward with their experiences of producer manipulation after 2022 bride Carolina Santos leaked her conversations with production.

The intruder bride took to Instagram on September 25 with recordings, revealing how she pleaded with the show’s team to allow her to tell her TV husband, Dion Giannarelli, about her “affair” with Daniel Holmes.

At the time, she was repeatedly told she could not talk to Dion and must keep her relationship with Daniel under wraps.

carolina santos married at first sight producer
Carolina Santos’ leaked conversations prompted other MAFS brides to speak against producers. Source: Nine.

After So Dramatic! shared Carolina’s Insta Story, multiple former TV brides took to the comment section to spill tea about their time on the show.

Carly Bowyer admitted that “the same” producer tactics were used on her when she partook in MAFS 2018.

“Then you’re forced to keep your mouth shut and receive the opinions and hate from the public for something that’s not even your choice,” she wrote.

“Surely people understand by now that the real villains are production!”

carly bowyer married at first sight producer experience
Carly said she was “forced to keep [her] mouth shut” about particular situations on MAFS 2018. Source: Instagram.

Married at First Sight 2020‘s Hayley Vernon Revealed Producers Refrained from Calling Police

Hayley Vernon, who appeared on MAFS in 2020, confessed that the “truth is rarely shown”.

“Good on [Carolina]. I wasn’t a fan on the show but like so many others weren’t a fan of me, [sic]” she said. “The truth is rarely shown.

“We had situations where police should of [sic] been involved and issues taken further.”

However, the now-successful OnlyFans star said producers often tried to “deal” with things “in-house” rather than get authorities on board.

“It was always let’s see what we can deal with in house [sic], and nothing ever happened,” she recalled.

“The storyboard and the characters they pre-plan always came before how a real person as a participant could be portrayed.”

hayley vernon married at first sight producer experience
Hayley said there were instances when police should have been involved in MAFS 2020. Source: Instagram.

What Did Carolina Santos Post About Her Experience with Married at First Sight Producers?

While on the show, Carolina was held to account by fans and viewers alike after hooking up with Daniel behind Dion’s back.

To turn the tide, the 33-year-old took to her Instagram Story with never-before-heard recordings of a conversation in which she begged producers to allow her to tell Dion about her relationship with Daniel.

After being “quiet for a long time”, the TV bride said she didn’t “want to keep this in any longer” for the sake of her “mental health and well being”.

“I tried with multiple producers prior to this conversation… about wanting to be upfront and honest with Dion,” she wrote, adding she wanted to “deal with the situation as she would on the outside”.

“As you will hear, if it was up to me, things would not have been done the way it did.”

carolina mafs leaked recording married at first sight producer
Carolina said she is opening up about producer manipulation for her “mental health”. Source: Instagram.

What Was Said In Carolina Santos’ Leaked Recording with a Married at First Sight Producer?

In the recording, an unnamed producer can be heard asking Carolina if she is “basing” her request — presumably to talk to Dion — on Jessika Power‘s MAFS experience in 2019, during which she “cheated” with Dan Webb.

jessika power dan webb
Carolina believed Jessika Power was granted opportunities to speak up about her “affair” in 2019. Source: Nine.

“She had someone to even talk about it with,” Carolina explained. “I literally have to keep it to myself the whole entire time.

“We’re not allowed to speak to people outside of the experiment. I’m not allowed to speak to people in the experiment. I literally have no one to even say, ‘Hey, this is what’s happening; what do you think? Like, what advice [do] you give me?'”

Adding that it was “really frustrating”, the mum of one said keeping Dion in the dark was “not the way [she] would have handled things on the outside”.

Carolina Santos Called Out the Producers for Leading On Both Her and Dion Giannarelli

The recording also revealed that Carolina told the camera that she would tell Dion about Daniel inviting her on a date. However, this was evidently scrapped due to it not fitting in with the producers’ desired storyline.

“They’re like, ‘No, you don’t want to tell Dion’,” she recalled before declaring: “I want to tell him like, now, how long am I going to drag this along for?”

The producer then said she would call the show’s then-executive producer Tara McWilliams to discuss Carolina’s game plan.

So Dramatic! Daily podcast

“This is the plan that we have,” the intruder bride reiterated. “Do you accept it? Do you agree with it?

“You guys drag me along as well… Every time I said that’s how I would like to do it, I just get like, ‘Oh, it’s not up to me, it’s up to Tara’.”

Carolina Santos Slammed Married at First Sight Producers for Falsifying “Reality TV”

Later in the recording, Carolina called out the show for going to extreme lengths to falsify the story.

“It’s not really reality anymore,” she can be heard telling producers. “Because it’s not doing the real thing that I would do.

“Then if it’s not going to be reality… at least run it by me so I can be like, ‘Okay, I think I’m okay to do that,’ because I think that way I can handle whatever hate comes my way.”

So Dramatic! has reached out to Carolina for comment.

Want even more goss? Listen to episode 215 of the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto below!

Know something that we don’t? Spill the tea here

Get the tea first! Follow So Dramatic! on Instagram and tune in on Mondays to get your reality tea fix with the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto.