Former Married At First Sight bride Olivia Frazer has called for a reality television reform in Australia two years after her appearance on the hit reality show.
After noting that MAFS had scored a nomination for the 64th annual TV WEEK Logies, Olivia took to her Instagram Stories to share a comment she left on the official MAFS IG post about the nomination.
Olivia also left a bunch of comments outlining what she hoped to see in future seasons of the show. After claiming to have her account restricted on the MAFS Instagram page, Olivia posted another Story about the changes she wants to see in Australian reality television.
“I vote for reality TV reform in Australia. I vote for it to be regulated, fair portrayals,” she wrote.
“I vote for participants’ right of reply while airing — no mandatory Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
“I vote for transparency. No producers coming forward saying, ‘Reality TV is reality’. No, admit it’s just entertainment, extremely edited and not accurate.
“I vote for no more reality TV participants (or their friends or family) coming off of any reality show — especially MAFS — losing their jobs, losing their reputation [and] being subjected to extreme amounts of abuse.”
(PEDESTRIAN.TV is wholly owned by Nine Entertainment, which airs Married At First Sight.)
Former Reality Stars Across Multiple Shows Speak Out
Olivia isn’t the first reality star to call for a reality television reform, either. Multiple contestants from different networks and shows have spoken out against the process.
Back in August 2023, Real Housewives Of New York star Bethenny Frankel spoke out against reality TV network Bravo — and reality TV in general — by demanding that Bravo and its parent company NBC Universal let the cast on reality shows break their NDAs so they can speak out against alleged mistreatment if it occurs.
She said her action was inspired by the actors’ and writers’ strikes, and she began thinking that reality stars should have a union. But while Bethenny’s issue was more with the monetisation and rights of the projects she’s appeared in, other reality contestants like Olivia believe that it’s the villain edit that causes the most emotional damage.
Closer to home, The Bachelor alumni Alisha Aitken-Radburn has also spoken of the trauma of receiving the so-called ‘villain edit’. She went on Nick ‘The Honey Badger’ Cummins‘ season in 2018 hoping to find love, and was instead portrayed to millions of viewers as a mean girl.
“I had a picture of who I was as a person in my mind,” Aitken-Radburn told The Guardian in 2023.
“I didn’t think that I was an angel, but I didn’t think that I was the absolutely horrible person that people in my Instagram DMs were telling me that I was.”
Alisha’s experience as a reality television villain prompted her to write a memoir entitled The Villain Edit, in which she owns up to her shortcomings during filming, and looks inward to see what it was that prompted her to get involved in the reality television world. Along with her own perspective, she gives us a taste of what happens behind the scenes on reality television and speaks to the subtle manipulation by producers.
And just this past June, Farmer Wants A Wife contestant Daisy Lamb slammed her portrayal in the 2024 season of the Channel Seven reality show.
“I think the way that production portrayed our story was disgusting,” she told Yahoo! Lifestyle.
“They chose to air highly edited scenes in which conversations never occurred and damaged the character of not only us but also our friends and family, as well as multiple girls during the series,” she claimed.
“They portrayed us in such a way that brought us into public disrepute, so much that we received death threats.”
Sadly, it seems like hateful messages and death threats seem to be common for those who have had negative portrayals on reality television.
In an interview with ABC, Olivia explained that as a result of her edit on Season Nine of MAFS, she was the target of relentless bullying and death threats on social media. She says the outpouring of hate left her feeling suicidal, and like she’d been failed by the reality TV system.
Do Contestants Have A Right To Complain About ‘The Edit’?
According to MAFS expert Alessandra Rampolla, what you see is what you get. So much so that she was surprised to see how real it was when she signed on to the show in 2021.
“I really wasn’t sure reading the commentary if what we would see on film at the end was what actually happened because there’s so many theories,” she told PEDESTRIAN.TV back in March.
“My experience very happily is that MAFS represents what happens.”
In case you need a refresher, Olivia was on MAFS in 2022. She was slammed for sharing a nude photo of fellow bride Domenica Calarco with the rest of the cast. In the interview with ABC, she claims that the image was advertising Domenica’s OnlyFans account, and because it was posted publicly, there “was no privacy expected in that situation”.
“They made me look like a criminal on the biggest show in Australia. And I didn’t sign up to be framed as a criminal,” she said.
“I signed up to potentially be a bit of a bitch, that’s okay, but to be framed as a criminal?”
Although she says she’s willing to take accountability for what she said and “what actually happened”, she feels that simply being put in the situation she was in by producers was immoral.
“When you’re that low and that dark and they know they’re responsible for putting you there, and … they just let you be devoured… Yeah, there’s something really fucking wrong with that show.”
PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to Nine for comment.
If you need mental health support, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or chat online.
Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
If you require immediate assistance, please call 000.
