Turns out Love Triangle 2022‘s Matt Phelan had a secret girlfriend while filming the show, with his ex now revealing he cheated on her with his co-star Madi Clarke.
ICYMI: Matt was Lisa Leaño‘s second option after she chose Patrick Hong on the Stan series, while Madi was paired with dirty cheater James Till and Daniel Parrott.
In December, So Dramatic! exclusively revealed that Matt and Madi have since recoupled IRL, but it may not be as simple as boy meets girl!
As reported in episode 240 of the So Dramatic! podcast, Matt’s girlfriend — from before, during AND after the show — reached out to host Megan Pustetto after we spilled the tea on his new romance.
According to the ex (who wishes to remain anonymous), she met Matt in April, several weeks before Love Triangle began filming in May.
“We actually met, then he got the phone call the next day to say that he made [it onto] the show,” she explained.
“So we were just kind of dating and taking it easy.”
However, in the lead-up to filming, the couple “became more serious”.
After Lisa dumped Matt after the “texting” portion of the series, the ex said she and Matt “celebrated because the show was over”. Unbeknownst to the pair, he’d return to the experiment.
“[Producers] called him back and they’re like, ‘Oh, we want you as an intruder’,” she recalled. “That was probably around mid-May.
“He’d already told me that he was in love with me by then.”
Love Triangle‘s Matt Phelan “snuck off the show” to visit his girlfriend for her birthday
After returning to film the second half of the series, Matt reportedly “snuck off the show” to surprise his girlfriend at her 30th birthday party.
“He pretty much said, ‘I’m in love with you. Would you be my girlfriend?’, at my birthday, in front of everyone,” she told Megan.
“[He] couldn’t stop telling my parents how he was so in love with me.” Umm, awkward!
While Matt made it clear on the show that he was intent on being with Lisa, his bae back home said she didn’t get that impression.
“We were chatting the whole time. As soon as he got there, he was like, ‘You have nothing to worry about. I’m doing this for the show. I’m not interested in her.'” Yup, we’ve heard that one before…
Matt’s former partner explained that once filming wrapped up, “the next three months were pretty amazing”.
The couple travelled, met each other’s families and were “so in love”.
Things took a turn for Matt Phelan’s secret relationship after Love Triangle began airing
Things soon became “a bit rocky” once Love Triangle started airing, with Matt developing “a little bit of an ego”.
“I tried to support him the whole way through and let him have that experience,” his ex-girlfriend admitted.
She said that she and Matt, along with his best mate and his wife, travelled to Bali while the show was airing. Upon their return, the series had wrapped up.
“Everyone from the show had caught up on a Friday night to have drinks, and that’s when he cheated on me with Madi.”
She explained that the situation was “so sad” because Matt had talked up his friendship with his co-star and expressed his frustration over the way she was treated on the show.
How did Matt Phelan’s girlfriend find out he’d cheated on her with his Love Triangle co-star Madi?
Matt’s ex revealed she didn’t learn about his infidelity “until the following week”.
“I stayed at his house after that… I thought things are a bit off. Then, by the Wednesday, he just broke up with me and said I was more in love with him than he was with me,” she recalled.
“[He said] that I was the best girlfriend he’d ever had but he just doesn’t want to hurt me. So yeah, I was pretty devastated.”
Noting that her “intuition” told her something had occurred behind her back, Matt told her, “No, I would never cheat on you”.
The following day she “actually did find out the truth that he did cheat” on her.
What happened when Matt Phelan’s ex-girlfriend confronted Madi Clarke?
Given Madi was against cheating on the show, coupled with her experience with James, Matt’s ex reached out to Madi about their relationship.
“I just was like, ‘I’m not sure if Matt would have ever told you about me’, and she replied a couple of days later but then blocked me,” she said.
At the time, Madi told her that “she didn’t know and it wouldn’t have happened if she had known about” the romance.
She noted that she didn’t “want to be involved” in the drama before Matt got in touch with an “apology message”.
However, his ex was aware that it was “only because [he] got caught”.
Love Triangle? More like Love SQUARE!
Want even more goss? Listen to episode 240 of the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto below!
Know something that we don’t? Spill the tea here!
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