When Did MAFS Australia’s Jono And Ellie Really Start Their Relationship?

29 April 2024, 16:26 | Updated: 29 April 2024, 16:30

MAFS' Jono and Ellie claim their relationship began after Final Vows
MAFS' Jono and Ellie claim their relationship began after Final Vows. Picture: Channel Nine

By Tiasha Debray

Married At First Sight Australia’s Jono and Ellie have gone from angels to villains in the reunion and it’s all based on when they decided to start their relationship.

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Married At First Sight Australia has officially closed for 2024 as the reunion episodes began to air.

The juiciest of which revolved around Jono McCullough and Ellie Dix. The experts Alessandra Rampolla, Mel Schilling and John Aiken originally paired the two with Lauren Dunn and Ben Walters respectively, but in an explosive plot twist, Jono and Ellie turned up to the reunion arm in arm.

But as Ellie and Ben didn't make it through the experiment, the drama really surrounds Jono and his on-screen wife Lauren and whether there was any overlap as when he started his relationship with Ellie.

Ellie Dix was originally paired with Ben Walters in MAFS 2024
Ellie Dix was originally paired with Ben Walters in MAFS 2024. Picture: Channel Nine

When did MAFS Jono and Ellie get together?

The first night of the reunion was one last dinner party together and Ellie and Jono arrived arm in arm, to everyone's surprise.

But with Jono having been with Lauren until Final Vows and the reunion being filmed one month after those vows when exactly did these two begin their relationship?

Jono admitted to the room that he and Ellie began to speak, “About a week after Final Vows I made the decision to reach out to Ellie.”

“I wanted to call her and let her know what had happened... I gave her a call and said s**t's gone down,” he said as he referred to how he and Lauren didn’t make it past their Final Vows.

He went on to say, “Then we talked for like an hour and a half... The last three weeks Ellie and I have been seeing each other have been amazing.”

MAFS' Lauren brought up the secret text exchange between Jono and Ellie
MAFS' Lauren brought up the secret text exchange between Jono and Ellie. Picture: Channel Nine

However, Jono’s recount of events seemed to ha e severely downplayed his relationship with Ellie before the Last Vows and Lauren had something to say about that.

She brought up secret texts that were sent back and forth between Jono and Ellie after Ellie had left the experiment halfway through, with Lauren saying, “The volume of messages... it just seemed like the getting to know you stages of them liking each other.”

The issue with this is that Jono was still technically married to Lauren and promised to try to make things work with her, all whilst texting Ellie in secret.

Lauren went on to say, “I made little jokes to Jono throughout the experiment saying, ‘I think Ellie has a crush on you, I think you have a crush on her’”.

Their texting history made the pair look like they’d been fostering a secret relationship and it painted Jono and Ellie in a negative light.

During the second night of the Reunion, Alessandra wanted to go deeper into what went on between them and asked Ellie whether she had had a ‘crush’ on Jono during her time on the show.

“I always thought Jono was good-looking, I actually put him in my top four on the face challenge,” Ellie admitted, “But as everyone knew, I really tried to make my relationship with Ben work on the show.”

Ellie claimed that she tried to make things work however, when it was Ben’s turn in the hot seat, he revealed that there had always been something between Jono and Ellie.

“I remember one time we went out and we were exercising and Jono just had this laser focus for [Ellie] and you guys were just glued together,” Ben told the group, “so it was obvious that there was a crush.”

Lauren and Jono were originally paired with one another on MAFS 2024
Lauren and Jono were originally paired with one another on MAFS 2024. Picture: Channel Nine

Whilst in a way it’s lovely the pair found each other and to this day appear to still be together, fans are disappointed at the attitude the pair wore in the reunion.

As Ben and Ellie travelled to the event together in the same car, Jono reminisced on his experience in the experiment, saying, “I wish I got to do this with you the entire experiment, but never mind.”

To which Ellie responded with, “You had to kiss a toad. I had to slay a dragon.”

Fans were outraged at that comment, considering Lauren was the wronged party here, as Jono technically emotionally cheated on her when he got to know Ellie over text whilst he remained married.

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