Why MAFS' Timothy Really Broke Down In Tears At The Couple's Retreat

3 April 2024, 14:25

Married At First Sight’s Timothy had a revelatory experience during the couple’s retreat that had him breaking down in tears and seeing his partner Lucinda in a completely new light.

Married At First Sight Australia took a huge emotional turn as the contestants left for the couple’s retreat this past week.

The experts Alessandra Rampolla, Mel Schilling and John Aiken sent the cast on the retreat as a way to launch these couple into new experiences with their partners in a fresh environment. It may have been just what the doctor ordered for Lucinda and Timothy, with the latter having had a cathartic emotional experience.

As the cast members sat in a group and played a card game that asked them to answer personal questions, Jayden Eynaud was asked what his biggest fear was to which he replied, “losing his parents.”

• Read more: MAFS Australia’s Jack And Tori Reveal They Tried To Leave The Experiment
• Read more: Who’s Still Together From MAFS Australia 2024?

Immediately the group felt the weight of his answer descend on Timothy who had revealed earlier in the show that not only had he lost his mother and brother 17 years ago, but his father had also passed away just five weeks before the experiment had begun.

Timothy showed viewers that he’s the type of man who bottles up his emotions and doesn't process his feelings. So the amount of grief he’s held onto has made it very very difficult for him to open up to anyone, let alone a romantic interest like his on-screen wife Lucinda.

Luckily for Timothy, he’s been paired with one of the most patient women in the world. Lucinda’s spirituality allowed her to make room for Timothy’s shortcomings and she seemed to have endless time for him to figure out what he needed.

"I want to be there for Tim but I have to be so careful not to push him," Lucinda said in the episode.

As the couple shared a private moment later that night, Lucinda started to cry as she spoke to Timothy about how brave he was for existing through the grief and trauma he’d been through.

Her tears seemed to trigger his own because then he said, "I was feeling so good and it seemed to turn to s*** so quick."

"Losing the family, and the biggest thing I lost was myself," he said and this moment of profound self-reflection was too much for Tim who then needed a private minute as he walked away and was seen crying elsewhere on the retreat property.

"Everyone has an anchor, generally it's your family. Being around everybody and hearing everybody, brings it all to light... and losing yourself, you don't know who you are anymore," he told the cameras after he managed to control his crying.

"I seem like a mouthpiece sometimes, and I try to make a joke of everything because it's the way I deal with things."

After he released his pent-up emotions, Timothy returned to Lucinda and gave her a long intimate hug, the type of intimacy that Lucinda’d been hoping for for a long time.

“I don’t know what it is. I just can’t hold myself together,” Timothy cried. He revealed that having Lucinda there to back him through his emotional turmoil had been the biggest revelation of all.

“Being around Lucinda I can see, maybe there’s a better way to live,” Timothy explained.“I wish I’d come into this with a more open heart, ready to be matched with a person like Lucinda.”

“I realised that this whole time, I’ve been wasting time just being angry and closed off. I judge everybody else. But I’m the most broken out of everybody.”

So whilst fans have been rooting for this to be a turning point in Lucinda and Timothy’s relationship, Season 10 bride Alyssa Barmonde had something to say on the matter.

Speaking on the Yahoo Lifestyle’s Behind the Edit podcast, the ex-contestant pointed out that whilst Timothy’s grief was probably genuine, his tears might have been coaxed out by producers to make good television.

“At that point in time you're just like, ‘I don't want to be around anyone, I need to get out of the situation, I need to be with my feelings’, and they're like, ‘Can you get it on camera? I need to get it on camera’,” Alyssa said on the podcast.

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“That's the thing that makes me feel really ick about the whole production side of things. He was probably still really in his emotions and he probably wasn't ready to speak to the producer about what he was going through. So bravo for him to kind of pick up the pieces and do that.”

Alyssa went on to speak about the different ways producers on the show tried to get emotional reactions from the cast, stating they “act like your best friend” so participants are under the illusion that they’re friends they can talk to.

“So when you're having this emotional breakdown, they're the first ones to run after you like, ‘Are you okay? What’s going on? Do you want to talk about it? It might feel better if you talk about it a little bit. Do you need a break? Do you need some water? Can I get you anything?’,” she gushed.

“So they try to, I guess, calm you down before [they say], ‘Do you think you can do just a few minutes just to get your emotions out? I feel like it's a really important part of your story’. And then in your head, you're like, ‘Well, I think maybe it is good that I talk about it’.”

Hopefully, Timothy wasn’t strong-armed into sharing an experience he wasn’t ready to share on national television, but with Lucinda by his side, we’re sure they can get through anything.

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