It’s hard to imagine Married At First Sight (MAFS) without a cheating scandal. Ever since Davina Rankin and Dean Wells went behind their partners’ backs in the 2018 season, every year has featured either an affair between participants or an unexpected couple swap.
Some of these were brief flings like 2023’s Claire Nomarhas and Adam Seed sharing a kiss on a night out, while others spectacularly crashed and burned like 2019’s Jessika Power and Dan Webb. There are a few examples, however, of couple swaps making it work in the outside world, with 2024’s Ellie Dix and Jono McCullough still going strong and 2025’s Jacqui Burfoot and Clint Rice currently planning their wedding.
So, how do the experts feel about these cheating scandals, and do they now basically expect one to play out every year?
How do the MAFS experts feel about cheating scandals?
John Aiken — who has been a part of the series since it first launched in 2015 — told PEDESTRIAN.TV that no matter what happens in previous seasons, he’s always surprised by what unfolds in the experiment.
“I watch the show like everybody else, and I’m often shocked and confronted with what’s going on,” he said. “Cheating is something that happens out in the real world, so it’s often going to happen on our show. I just sit back, and I wait to see what unfolds.
“What I know is that whatever’s going on out in the real world will turn up on Married At First Sight — whether it’s gaslighting, whether it’s OnlyFans, whether it’s Boss Babes speaking their truth, whether it’s TikTok and blue and pink jobs in a relationship or tradwives. So I just sort of keep an open mind to it, whatever it is, and then just deal with what’s in front of me.”
Anyone who’s tuned into the reality show before knows that Aiken is never shy to call out the participants’ bad behaviour and hold them accountable. He’s previously called out “abrasive” communication styles, “toxic” relationship patterns and “disgusting” comments — and he loves doing it as much as viewers enjoy watching it.
“All I can say is that it’s always exciting for me, because it’s unscripted and it’s unpredictable,” he told P.TV. “I don’t know what I’m going to say, I don’t know how I’m going to say it, and I don’t know what I’m going to be seeing. I’m just basically playing what is in front of me.
“But what I do know is that I have a very short period of time to make them listen, and so I will talk to them in a very direct way that hopefully lands and makes them go away and think about what they’re doing and whether they do need to change.”
It’s already been revealed that this year’s season will feature “unprecedented” behaviour from the female participants, so prepare for Aiken doing what he does best and calling them out. Because just like a cheating scandal, it wouldn’t be MAFS without it.
The post MAFS’ John Aiken Reveals How He Really Feels About The Show’s Cheating Scandals appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
