Married at First Sight Australia’s Jesse defends himself after controversial 'ick list'

30 March 2023, 09:17

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MAFS Australia star Jesse Burford has claimed he was asked by producers to write his dating 'ick list'.

Married at First Sight Australia’s Jesse Burford has been forced to defend himself after backlash on the show.

The reality star was matched with Claire Nomarhas on the show and things didn’t get off to a good start.

In an explosive episode, Claire revealed she had kissed fellow MAFS star Adam Seed on a night out before coming clean to her husband.

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But it was Jesse who caused controversy when he told his wife she was too loud and tried to shush her before consistently mocking her during arguments.

Jesse was slammed for his 'ick list' on MAFS Australia. Picture: Channel Nine/E4

He even went on to write a dating 'ick list' which noted everything that gave him the ick when it came to dating.

This patronising list included things such as ‘chicks who pout’, ‘star sign chicks’ and ‘drama queens’, which didn’t go down with viewers.

However, following backlash from viewers, Jesse has now claimed it wasn’t his idea to write the list.

Speaking on a podcast, Jesse said: “I sat in an interview for two hours. I told producers about my entire life, and they picked 30 seconds where I pulled out a list that they asked me to write.”

Jesse went on to admit the things he wrote on the list were true, but he ‘hated’ it being called an ‘ick list’.

Jesse and Claire got together on MAFS Australia. Picture: Channel 9/E4

He added: “There’s such a negative connotation to it. We all have things that we’re not attracted to, they were mine.”

This comes after Jesse pulled out the list during the episode where he met with wife Claire for the first time.

In the promo video, he said: “I actually brought it. All my turnoffs [are women who are] addicted to their phone, motivational quotes, vanilla, basic, boring. [Those who] don’t listen and don’t even let you speak. Star sign chicks, drama queens.”

Things then got very awkward when one of the first questions Claire asked him was what his star sign was.

Unsurprisingly, Claire and Jesse left the experiment after a few weeks and didn’t keep in touch afterwards.

Updating fans, Claire recently said: “Jesse seems to be doing great. Jesse is not really one to be like, ‘How are you doing? How are you feeling?’ So I’m not really sure how he really feels about me.”