Married At First Sight‘s (MAFS) Ash Galati and Madeleine Maxwell left viewers shooketh to their core after they abruptly quit the experiment during Monday’s episode. An insider has since spilled the beans on why the couple quickly ditched the show.
MAFS has really kicked off with a lot of heat this week. We got that brutal Commitment Ceremony following Jack‘s controversial comment, Lucinda‘s dad telling Timothy to bump uglies with his daughter and, of course, Ash and Madeleine’s speedy exit from the show.
For folks who aren’t following along, Ash and Madeleine joined MAFS as intruders, therefore their marriage happened in the middle of the season. On Sunday night’s episode, Madeleine wrote “leave” at the Commitment Ceremony, however, her reality TV husband opted to stay.
In the following episode (Monday), Ash revealed that he had time to think and ultimately decided that it was best that he and Madeleine yeet from the show. According to the good ol’ MAFS narrator, it was an “amicable decision” between the couple.
The last time we see Ash on-screen is right after he wished he had written “leave” with a shot of him carrying his luggage. Madeleine is never seen or mentioned again in the episode.
Although this all took place in the most recent episode, it seems that Ash and Madeleine were allowed to leave the show. Usually, if one person writes “leave” but the other person writes “stay”, the couple MUST stay until the next Commitment Ceremony.
But I guess this season, we’re breaking all the damn rules.
That being said, Ash and Madeleine’s time on the show was so short that if you chewed bubble gum watching just their bits, it would still have flavour in the end.
Not tea, no shade.
Why were Ash and Madeleine allowed to leave Married At First Sight?
Following their abrupt departure on Monday night’s episode, an insider has spilled some info on why they were able to leave, despite MAFS rules.
The insider told Yahoo! Lifestyle that producers cut them loose because they didn’t want to “dramatise” their exit and “felt it was easier to let them go quickly and quietly.”
“Madeleine’s erratic behaviour had raised quite a few eyebrows during her first week on the show, with no one quite sure if she was acting or it was real,” the insider told the publication.
“After Ash wrote to stay – she point blank said to producers she refused to carry on with the experiment and was going home.
“It’s not uncommon for participants to threaten to quit like this and no one can be held against their will, with producers then tasked with talking them around to continue with the experiment.”
The anonymous source continued to say that letting go of Madeleine “felt easier” due to questions regarding her “state of mind with the pressure of the experiment”, which was previously raised by her fellow cast-mates and members of the crew.
“Endemol Shine Australia will never compromise their duty of care for the sake of content or storylines,” the insider said.
Last week, Ash admitted to Daily Mail Australia that his reality TV bride “wasn’t what I was expecting” and that he had doubts about Madeleine due to her past as an actor.
“I was like, ‘Is she genuine? Like, why is she on here? Is she acting?’ So it played into my doubts,” he said, per the publication.
He continued to say that you “need to be a patient guy” if you were to “work in marriage” with the former Home and Away actor.
Ash and Madeleine weren’t the only couple to leave prematurely this season. Only a couple of episodes into MAFS, Collins Christian and Natalie Parham left the show, even though Collins asked to stay during a Commitment Ceremony.
A couple of days later, another insider revealed that the pair were actually “removed” from the show as Natalie was in “no state to continue production” following the recent death of her father.
