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Married At First Sight Australia's Melinda reveals ‘secret divide’ between cast that wasn’t shown
1 June 2023, 13:08 | Updated: 1 June 2023, 16:43
Melinda Willis chats to us about her time on Married at First Sight Australia, including a secret divide that was cut from the show.
Married at First Sight Australia was full of drama, break ups and arguments this year, but one star that quickly became one of our all-time favourites was Melinda Willis.
After being matched with Layton Mills, successful business woman Mel didn’t exactly get off to a good start in the experiment and it was a long journey to find love.
But nine months since filming kicked off, the couple are now stronger than ever and are busy planning their future together.
Now, Mel has opened up to us about her time on the show, including a ‘secret divide’ between the girls and how her romance is moving forward.
When asked who she’s still friends with from the cast, Mel told us: “There’s a few people not talking, there was a divide on the show you don't really see, especially with the girls.
“That was a storyline at first and then it quickly got buried, so I would say that storyline is still evident in real life.”
While there was originally a big WhatsApp group with the whole cast, Mel told us this got ‘bickery’ and was dominated by one of the groups which led many people to leave.
“It’s gone back to those two separate groups that were arising in the experiment that quickly got shut down,” she said, continuing: “I talk to Tahnee, Janelle, Alyssa and Evelyn.
“I don’t have anything against the other girls but I don’t really stay in contact with them.”
Fans of MAFS Australia will know that Alyssa Barmonde has faced criticism after her rocky relationship with husband Duncan James, and even lost her job after the show's edit.
Speaking about her friendship with Alyssa, Mel told us: “I had my group and stuck to it the whole time.
“I’m still very supportive of Alyssa, a lot of people aren’t but I was there I know the truth, I know my reality and I’m not going to not like someone just because other people don’t.”
She added: “It’s interesting because some people, when their edits came to life you really saw their connections change.
“You could see who was worried about being friends with someone who maybe wasn't going to be liked.”
Mel married Layton during one of the first episodes of the show and despite their initial hurdles, the couple worked hard on their communication.
Opening up about the early stages of the experiment, Mel told us: “Layton had been single for four years so he was in Layton’s world.
“He was just going to the gym on his own and going out in Sydney, seeing friends, I was left on my own and felt excluded at the time.
“We had a bit of a disconnect where I was like ‘can you let me in and can you be in this?’”
Luckily, things have improved since the cameras stopped rolling, with Layton even planning to move from Sydney closer to Mel’s home of Brisbane.
“We’re doing much better than what you saw in the show,” Mel said.
“We still have elements of the stubborn bumping heads that you saw, and we’ve come to terms with the fact we’re always going to have a little bit of that.”
MG Talent is a division of MG Empower, a global integrated marketing agency that creates award-winning campaigns for such trailblazing brands as Bumble, Barbie, Fujifilm and Chopard. Melinda is the first from the MAFS franchise to have global representation, with MG Talent looking after her in the UK, Australia, and beyond.
