MAFS Australia's Eliot reveals real reason he quit show
5 March 2025, 21:00
Married At First Sight Australia groom Eliot has shared why he left wife Lauren and the experiment, revealing that all was not as it seemed.
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MAFS Australia's Eliot, 35, made history on the hit reality show when he left wife Lauren just a few days into their honeymoon, stating that there was no connection with the bride.
Married At First Sight depicts the scenes of Eliot leaving the show with him packing his bags during the honeymoon, and telling Lauren all the reasons he doesn't think they're a good match - including her age and her interests.
Now, Eliot has spoken out about what really happened with Lauren and the real reason he left the show so abruptly, claiming that the feeling that they were not right for each other was mutual between him and his bride.
Warning - this article contains spoilers for MAFS Australia 2025.
Speaking to Yahoo Australia on their MAFS podcast, Eliot set the record straight on what really happened on the honeymoon, and how the producers edited certain things he had said to make him look worse.
He also shared the details of an un-aired conversation with Lauren that they had on their honeymoon where she told him she wanted a husband that makes "at least half a million dollars a year", and that she "wasn't fussed" on having children - something he was very passionate about.
Eliot told them: "When I left, the funny thing was that in the beginning it was more of a mutual thing and, this was one thing that frustrated me they didn't show, we sat down at dinner and we actually said to each other 'Oh this, this, this, and there was no malice or anything.
"For example, she said to me 'I want a guy that makes half a million dollars a year' and I'm not making half a million a year, I'm not doing poorly but I was like 'Oh, okay interesting', that's not me, that's not something that I value that much."
He continued: "We were talking about kids and that was a whole big thing, I made that the biggest reason, the biggest kind of 'non-negotiable' to use their [production's] words, that really didn't line up. The first way she explained it was 'I didn't even know if I want to have kids, but if I did I would have one and not a single one more', and I was kind of like, you know that's not really the energy, I want someone that's like 'Yeah I really want to have a family', that's important to me that's a priority to me and that kind of message got lost there."
He went on to talk about the scenes in which he leaves the experiment, claiming that the producers used dialogue from different days in the moments he spoke to Lauren.
"I don't want to go and bring up the nitty-gritty," he said: "But there's so much dialogue that's from another day that's been posted before and I'm not even saying it to her, but they've got it."
Eliot went on: "Me packing my bags in another room and they just put the audio over the top as if I'm saying it to her when I'm not, [it] paints a very different picture [than of] two people that agree they're not a good match and then you say 'well listen I don't really want to stick around just to do this, you know, drama where everyone [is] arguing every day.
"It looks very different to someone being like 'uh, you're too old' and walking out, you'd have a very different opinion of that person."
He claims that he was "really apologetic" when he left Lauren, but that this was cut from the edit. He has also revealed that Lauren's age was not the big issue between them, and it was more about their lack of similarities.
“If I met the girl of my dreams and she happened to be 37 as if I'm going to be like, ‘Nah, sorry, the number’s wrong’, he said: "That was never the way that it worked out. It was more just like, if they phrase the question like, ‘So Eliot, what on your non-negotiables didn't line up?’ and then they put it on me and I go, ‘Oh well she's 37’ and they don't show them asking the question, they show me volunteering information and it comes across very different.”
Speaking more in depth about when he left the experiment, Eliot said: “I felt awful. I said to her like, ‘Look, I feel like I'm in a horrible position here. I have to either go back on the thing that I said I would do, or I have to walk out on you. It sucks’.
“I don't want this to be about like, ‘I'm better than you’ or anything like that. It was more just we didn’t click and it was very, very obvious early on. Not even anything about box ticking, just the chemistry was way off. It was very awkward, a lot of silence… You can’t have any banter, you can’t have a laugh about things. It's really tough.”
Eliot does return to the experiment with a new bride, Veronica, as Lauren also returns with a new groom, Clint. However, he admits he was shocked about the frosty greeting he got from his first wife when they came face-to-face for the first time.
“I was under the impression that she wasn't even that upset about [me leaving]," he confessed: "Like, there was only one scene that they filmed where she was just kind of like, half-heartedly convincing me to stay. But it was only because they were like, ‘Hey Lauren, go and tell him that you want him to stay’. She really wasn't fussed."
“So I was thinking, okay, they're going to give her another chance, she’s going to be there with a new husband, they’re gonna be happy, and I’ll say, ‘Hey listen, sorry about that’. I thought we’d actually be friends. I did not think there was that level of resentment coming back. Probably naively, but yeah, nonetheless, I didn't think it was going to be played like that.”
In scenes yet to air in the UK, Eliot has a sit down with expert John Aiken where they discuss his decision to leave the experiment and his wife, Lauren. Then, in an unexpected twist, both Eliot and Lauren are given a second chance on the show, being matched with two new participants.
