Shock horror: Married at First Sight Australia 2023 producers were behind Bronte Schofield‘s baffling decision to write “stay” after Harrison Boon dumped her over text.
ICYMI: The walking red flag called it quits with his wife via text message just days after he introduced her to his son and admitted he was fAlLiNg In LoVe with her.
Bronte was understandably (or at least, acting) upset over the bombshell, which is why fans collectively screeched when she chose to stay in the experiment at the Commitment Ceremony that aired on March 12.
As revealed in episode 268 of the So Dramatic! podcast, this decision had a little HUGE helping hand from producers.
Safe to say, the trajectory of her walking out of the Dinner Party to opting to stay is completely f*cked up.
What happened when Married at First Sight‘s Bronte Schofield revealed she was leaving the experiment?
Sources dished to So Dramatic! that producers weren’t keen on Bronte leaving when she told them her plans after ditching the recent Dinner Party.
“Bronte was hysterical,” they revealed. “She started losing her sh*t, saying ‘I’m leaving’.
“At 9 am, the producer called her begging her to stay and trying to change her mind.”
They reportedly told the 28-year-old not to “act on impulse”, particularly after she and Harrison had “come this far”.
“They said anything they could to get her to stay.”
However, Bronte was adamant that her “self-worth was more important than this bullsh*t with Harrison”, and wasn’t willing to keep up the charade for the storyline’s sake.
Detailing producers’ “manipulation tactics”, the insider tried convincing the Western Australian that Harrison “really did care about her”.
“[They said] that Harrison was close to seeing her worth, she just needed to give it a bit longer, they had worked so hard, don’t throw it all away now,” they recalled.
“Bronte was saying, ‘He’s broken up with me, I look stupid if I stay. He’s toxic. There’s nothing you can say to make me stay. I’m done. Just let me go home’.”
Bronte Schofield contacted her mum for help when producers wouldn’t let up
Sources explained that a three-hour text exchange ensued between Bronte and producers, with the TV bride repeatedly expressing she wanted to leave the experiment.
She also contacted her mum, Sue, and expressed her frustrations in a text message thread obtained by So Dramatic!.
“This man [Harrison] is actually going to send me into a mental institution,” she wrote after filming the scene in which she and Harrison spoke about his breakup text.
“The producers just made us do an on-screen chat before I head off. And he goes, ‘I do not understand the problem, why can’t we just leave on good terms and leave as friends’.
“WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU.”
Bronte’s mum replied, noting that Married at First Sight producers were “trying hard to milk the [Bronte and Harrison] show”.
Admitting it was “very confusing”, Sue wondered if Harrison was “drunk” when he sent the message.
Expressing that she was “so done”, Bronte said there was “no going back now”.
“Good on you,” her mum commended. “Make some other couple the golden couple.”
Bronte then added that she felt “so let down” that her husband “gave up so easily”.
In subsequent messages, she said she was “a shell of [her]self”.
“This man is just evil.”
She went on to say producers continued to “come into [her] room and try and convince [her] to stay”.
“I haven’t even left for the [Commitment Ceremony] yet and it starts in 2 hours.”
“This is so wrong on so many levels,” Sue said. “Make another person the punching bag and they can be humiliated”.
She added: “Stand firm on your decision… The producers want you to stay purely for selfish reasons, they don’t care how hurt or humiliated you get.
“It’s all about the ratings.”
Bronte Schofield questioned whether Harrison Boon was ‘real’
In another set of messages, the influencer said she was unsure whether the Harrison she was falling for was the “real” deal.
“They asked me to state what I liked about Harrison, and I was like, ‘How can I say that if I don’t even know if what I saw was real’,” she wrote.
After her mum mused that “there are five different [versions of] Harrison”, Bronte said that she sees “a different one every day”.
“[Producers] can see how uncomfortable I am,” she added. “It’s actually just pushing me to breaking point.”
Married at First Sight producers held Bronte Schofield CAPTIVE at Skye Suites
After Bronte kept fighting the producers, they called MAFS‘ executive producer and told them they needed to talk to the bride.
“There was more back and forth arguing and Bronte was hysterically crying,” a source explained.
“Producers had worn her down so much she was emotionally exhausted.”
They then confiscated her phone and refused to “let her leave”.
“They then told her to get dressed and said the only way she could leave is if she spoke to Alex and Molly [the executive producers], and that she would be taken to see them.”
Funnily enough, the EPs were at the warehouse where the Commitment Ceremonies are filmed.
The Commitment Ceremony usually starts at 7 pm, for which contestants leave at 2 pm. However, Bronte was “locked in” her Skye Suite until 6 pm that night.
Bronte Schofield was ‘worn down’ until she wrote ‘stay’
It was there that producers continued to “manipulate” her again, telling her it would “look bad [and] guilty” if she quit the show.
“They were telling her, ‘The public will hate you for leaving Harrison, who cares what the other couples think’.”
They also tried to convince Bronte again that Harrison was still head over heels for her. Sure, Jan.
“So Bronte was literally locked in a room, unable to leave until she did what they said,” insiders said. “So in order for her to leave, she had to write stay.
“After being worn down by them for almost 12 hours, she finally gave in and did what they said. She cracked under pressure.”
“It got to the point where she just wrote stay to shut them up and get out of there because she knew they weren’t going to let her leave until she did.”
What’s more, is that sources claimed Bronte “lost herself in the process” of the experiment and “having producers constantly reinforcing that didn’t help”.
So Dramatic! understands that similar tactics were used to get Bronte to stay at the following Commitment Ceremony, which is set to air on March 19.
“Again, Bronte didn’t want to go,” a source said. “But production locked her in a room again and heavily manipulated her to write stay.”
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