A huge Channel Nine cover-up has been exposed as the truth about Married at First Sight Australia 2023’s Dan Hunjas and Sandy Jawanda‘s “agreed fake relationship” has come to light.
As revealed in episode 263 of the So Dramatic! podcast, the couple had agreed to fake their relationship in order to help Sandy boost her profile and weren’t actually together when the now infamous butt dial scandal took place.
Married at First Sight’s Dan and Sandy were deliberately mismatched by producers
A Married at First Sight producer has spilled the tea to So Dramatic! revealing that the couple were deliberately mismatched by production.
“Sandy and Dan were in fact a deliberate production mismatch discussed at length on the inside and the best strategy to leverage it for new viewers,” the producer explained.
“Dan’s edit was tricky to tone down to make him appear like a more believable match for Sandy. He’s completely different to how he’s been portrayed.”
They went on to explain that because of this, all of Dan’s backstory had to be left on the cutting room floor.
“It just couldn’t be used as it was all the outdoorsy and beach stuff he does as you can see on his Insta,” they dished.
“Sandy is allergic to the beach and the ocean and isn’t that active type at all.”
The rogue producer went on to list all of the couple’s “contrasting qualities” regarding their personalities and lifestyles, concluding that they “couldn’t be less unsuited if you tried.”
“A conservative Indian culture with an expressive European culture,” they stated. “A novice in the dating world with a huge playboy. It was a recipe for disaster.
“Just compare their Instagrams… One look and you can tell it was never going to work.” And yep, they got that right!
The rogue Married at First Sight producer describes Sandy and Dan’s pairing as the “biggest edit cover-up of the season”
The inside snitch went on to say that Sandy and Dan’s “wild match” was the “biggest edit cover-up of the season.”
Sandy was originally matched with an Indian man who pulled out last minute and so casting had to find a “replacement quickly” and scouted Dan for the role.
Because of this, Dan was able to negotiate a good contract for himself, but was “a handful around set.”
“He was always breaking curfew and catching up with the other grooms on the show. Particularly Harrison [Boon], Josh [White], Layton [Mills] and Cameron [Woods].
“He was given several warnings and had a massive clash with [Executive Producer] Tara McWilliams after she threatened him by reminding him that she is responsible for how he gets shown to the Australian public,” the producer revealed.
Because of this, Dan became “anti-production” as soon as he got back from his honeymoon and accused the production company [Endemol Shine Australia] of deliberately mismatching them.
The TV groom wanted to leave the experiment in the first week, however, producers “couldn’t lose them that early on in the piece.”
“A special meeting was held with Tara, Alex and Molly [senior producers] who further negotiated and convinced Dan to stay for weeks. Which is why he was able to negotiate better terms on his contract,” they said.
“They desperately needed him to stay. The investment in Sandy and the new Indian audience she would bring was too much to lose so early on.”
According to the insider, Sandy also felt like they had been mismatched and avoided Dan in the early days of their marriage and even expressed that she wanted to leave the experiment.
Sandy was cast on Married at First Sight for “deliberate tokenism” to attract a new Indian audience
It’s also come to light that Sandy was cast on MAFS to tick a diversity box and attract a new audience in the Indian community.
“Sandy was also f*cked over by producers,” the producer detailed. “She was cast deliberately to increase ratings by attracting a new Indian audience – deliberate tokenism.
“It was pressure on production from Channel Nine to improve on ratings from last year.”
Adding: “Similar to what they did with Omar and Oz on The Block and the Muslim community.”
According to the production source, they had considered casting a “gay couple” to appeal to the queer community, but instead decided to “focus on breaking into the wider Indian community.”
“There’s a big element of cultural protection for Sandy in her casting and her edit,” they said.
“Dan is the collateral damage in that, and we get to see a frustrated Dan in the last two episodes blow it all up. He’d had enough and finally blew his lid. He couldn’t keep the act up anymore.”
The producer went on to list all the examples of how production covered this up. For length, we won’t list them here, but you can hear all about them in episode 263 of the So Dramatic! podcast.
Sandy instigated a “fake relationship” with Dan to build her profile
The producer said that in the last two weeks of the show, Sandy and Dan were in “a fake relationship” that Sandy had “instigated.”
“Sandy asked Dan to come to the end with her so that she could build her platform,” the producer explained. “She wanted to increase her exposure so she could be a voice for Indian women. Dan agreed.”
However, despite being in a mutually agreed “showmance“, Sandy was still hurt by Dan’s rejection.
“Sandy “orchestrated her friends to attack Dan” and blindside him, essentially f*cking him over.”
Producers used the fake butt dial scandal to cover up Dan and Sandy’s fake relationship
The butt dial scandal was orchestrated by producers to cover up Dan and Sandy’s fake relationship.
“Dan let his guard down and sh*t-talked Sandy during the boy’s night and gave us the ammo we needed to throw him under the bus and save Endemol Shine Australia’s risk of the deliberate mismatch being exposed,” the producer explained.
“We find out via one of the intruders, Rupert Budgen, and orchestrate a fake ‘butt dial’ situation where one of the brides Evelyn overhears the conversation at the bar,” they dished.
Adding: “The butt dial never happened. It was fake.”
“Production then helped Sandy create a situation to blindside Dan using information she extracted from him in those last two weeks during their ‘fake relationship’ when Dan let his walls down…
“Sandy used it against him under the disguise that they were still both in a relationship.”
According to the insider, a “fake confession scene” was set up with Evelyn Ellis, Claire Nomarhas and Sandy to expose Dan’s boys’ chat.
Sandy gets the brides “to do her dirty work” exposing Dan at the Dinner Party, where Dan was “epically blindsided.”
The source confirmed Dan’s accusations that the butt dial timeframes on Evelyn’s phone didn’t line up with the times that Dan was at the boy’s night.
“We edit the show to make Dan look like he is lying at the Dinner Party by switching out his denial about the butt dial and placing the denial against the accusation that he was venting to the other boys about Sandy (which he did in fact admit to when it was brought up at the dinner party),” the producer confessed.
Sandy tipped the media off about Dan’s relationship with wedding guest Samantha Symes and it backfired
At the Reunion, Dan complained to production about the recap video they played and called it “The Sandy Show”.
“He said it wasn’t what he was promised when being cast,” they revealed.
“He was told ‘it is what it is’. Dan does not come off looking good. Sandy is playing ball with Nine and keeping a low profile.”
At that point, Dan decided to go rogue by debuting his relationship with wedding guest Samantha Symes just hours after his TV wedding to Sandy. He’s also been hinting at what’s really been going on in his captions on Instagram and in Facebook posts.
The producer also dropped another bombshell, revealing that it was in fact Sandy who tipped the media off about Dan’s relationship with Samantha.
“Sandy canvassed around to the outlets that Dan was seeing someone new,” they claimed. “She snitched on him to the Daily Mail and a few other outlets in an attempt to expose him but it backfired big time.
“Daily Mail contacted Nine for comment and told them Sandy was their source. Once Nine were tipped off by them that it was Sandy, she was reprimanded, but it was too late.”
This “set the wheels in motion” and Daily Mail stalked out and contacted Dan and Samantha, got confirmation and then broke the story.
“Then they started working together, helping Dan go rogue and ruining Sandy’s storyline and therefore her chances of building her platform,” they said.
“Now Sandy is complaining about her storyline being ruined when it was in fact her that brought it to the attention of the outlets.”
Sandy “isn’t as innocent” as she’s been made out to be
Sandy reportedly knew about Claire and Adam Seed’s kiss and was involved in a “cover-up” to protect her “bestie”.
“She witnessed the kiss then just as it was coming out, production tipped Claire off and told her if she doesn’t confess to it now it will look bad,” the producer revealed.
“They said, ‘If you take accountability and come forward, everyone will forgive you.’ Which is what she did.”
The producer went on to detail how Sandy and Claire “staged” the conversation where Claire confessed about the kiss.
“It was all fake,” they dished. “Sandy not only knew about it but witnessed it and told Claire not to mention it to anyone. She is partly to blame for Jesse [Burford] being gaslit and lied to for so long.”
Channel Nine have “lost control of the Married at First Sight cast”
In the final instalment of tea-spilling from our rogue producer, they revealed that “sh*t has been going on BTS at Channel Nine” whilst MAFS has been airing.
“They’ve lost control of the cast. Alex and Molly have been found to be out of their depth. That’s why Tara had to step back into almost full-time to steer it home,” they said.
“Everyone is going rogue, storylines are almost all but ruined… It’s out of control! But it’s their own fault really.”
They revealed that Channel Nine are in “damage control mode” now and are trying to “salvage” what they can.
“They are heavily banking heavily on the UK ratings, and the show is about to premiere over there,” they said.
“MAFS is the backbone of Channel Nine and they are doing everything they can to protect it and cover up their shady behaviour in the process.”
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