MAFS Australia Is Rocked By Shockingly Unexpected Cheating Scandal

27 March 2024, 11:22 | Updated: 27 March 2024, 12:34

Is it really Married At First Sight without a salacious cheating scandal? But which two contestants have been found sneaking around in the 2024 season of the reality show?

Warning: Major show spoilers ahead

Married at First Sight Australia has been a jaw-droppingly dramatic season already, but it gets a whole lot worse.

With the UK airing episodes roughly one month behind Australia, we know first-hand what is to come and it isn’t pretty.

The experts Alessandra Rampolla, Mel Schilling and John Aiken haven't had to work this hard for their money as they've tried to keep their contestants in line.

But which two sweet and seemingly harmless contestants have come out of the woodwork and revealed they were secretly texting each other behind their partner’s backs?

• Read more: Who Has Left MAFS Australia 2024 So Far?
• Read more: Who’s Still Together From MAFS Australia 2024?

Warning: Major show spoilers ahead

Those who love to spoil the show for themselves probably already know that contestants Ellie Dix and Jonathan ‘Jono’ McCullough began seeing each other after the experiment officially ended.

Originally paired with Ben Walters, Ellie was papped kissing Jono on a Sydney beach back in February 2024 and it was reported the pair had connected after filming for the show was over, but it's now come out that that was not quite the order of events.

Jono was originally married to Lauren Dunn on the show, and while their ride hadn't been easy, no one thought Jono had it in him to cheat on Lauren, but that that’s exactly what happened.

In episodes that have already aired in Australia, it came out that Jono had secretly been texting Ellie behind Lauren’s back from the moment the brunette left the experiment, which had been four or five weeks earlier.

In the same episode, Lauren demanded to see Jono's phone and ultimately found hundreds of texts between himself and Ellie. So while it wasn’t physically cheating, it can be considered emotional cheating.

“You reached out to her. These aren't just relaying information that happened the night before, this is more than that. My stomach dropped,” Lauren told Jono in the episode.

Whilst Jono had no choice but to admit he had been texting Ellie, he also claimed that it was completely platonic.

But how platonic could it have been if the pair ended up dating just a few weeks later?

Even during the show, Jono hinted at a connection to Ellie because it became a recurring joke amongst the cast that he had a crush on her after he was seen defending her multiple times at different dinner parties.

Speaking to the cameras during one episode, Jono described Ellie as a “lovely, beautiful, smiling, happy and very intelligent woman”.

Jono's defence of Ellie came after Lauren, his 'wife', had been trying to forgive him for not defending her when fellow contestant Jack told him to ‘muzzle his woman.’

Despite all the drama, Lauren and Jono had a few more ups and downs to go through before they realised they were wrong for each other and said no at their final ceremony.

According to the Daily Mail Australia Ellie and Jono reportedly planned to announce their relationship at the reunion.

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