July 31, 2025 • 11 mins
The upcoming 2026 season of Married At First Sight Australia has hit it's first big scandal, with a TikTok questioning why one groom was cast going viral overnight. There's now a movement to have him removed... but have producers failed or did they tick all of their boxes?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to the Maths Ony podcast with
Me Joshua Fox and in news that will surprise none
of you, the upcoming twenty twenty six season I've Married
at First I has now hit its first big controversy
just two weeks into production. So a group of women
have united in an effort to get one of the
new grooms kicked off the new season, with several of
(00:22):
them claiming to have some personal history or past with him.
And this could become quite damaging and the situation is
a difficult one for all involved to navigate. So this
what I'm going to call a movement, was started publicly
by a woman named Monica on TikTok, who two days
(00:42):
ago shared this video.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It is really concerning that the MATHS producers have not
done their research. And I'm saying this because I have
many women reaching out to me sharing receipts on this
Maths twenty twenty six groom. All I can say is
the Maths producers have not followed through on what they promised,
(01:06):
and because some women are sharing their concern for their safety,
I need to be very careful with what I share
because I do not want to put anyone in an
uncomfortable situation, but I also want to ensure that we
don't have another season like last like the last season,
(01:31):
because that was absolutely futrid. The behavior from some of
the men on there was absolutely disgusting. I will be
sharing these shared experiences once I have all the receipts
to back them up.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Since then, there's comments from other women like yeah, I
dated this guy too, he shouldn't be on the show.
Several people are saying they've personally emailed production company and
Animal Shine Australia, who make masks, urging them to remove
Here me as a podcaster slash journalist, I've had two
different people now messaging me from burner accounts saying get
(02:07):
him off the show. I know other journalists have received
similar messages, but so far, like I haven't seen anyone
with evidence of any wrongdoing. And this is again why
the whole thing is kind of difficult. And again just
from what I've seen at the time of recording this podcast,
right now, everything is just like mostly vague statements and
(02:30):
comments alluding to some kind of bad behavior from this
person in his past. But again, I'm yet to see
anyone make any actual accusation of something specific. And the
groom is yet to respond to any of this, and
I doubt he will because I don't think production and
the show's publicists will want him adding fuel to the fire.
(02:50):
And that's why I suppose until there is some kind
of tangible and irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing or he does
address anything he's being accused of, I personally don't feel
comfortable naming him in this podcast because as of right now,
all of this feels quite one sided, and I do
(03:11):
think that media, like myself, we have a real responsibility
to remain unbiased. And you probably wouldn't. Well, why am
I even bringing this up on this podcast? And firstly,
it's because that TikTok is getting so much traction that
it kind of has to be addressed because everyone's asking
me about it. And then secondly, there is like a
(03:31):
wider point I want to get to in this about
I don't want to say cancel culture, just more about
how things like this roll out and what it means
from a media point of view. So I remember my
first of a job as a journalist on a weekly
magazine in the UK. I was about twenty two years old,
(03:52):
and the editor said to me once and I'll never
forget this. Behind every celebrity is a bitter X And
I'm not saying that is the case here at all,
but the lesson that editor was teaching me was like
a reminder that as a journalist, whenever someone is in
the public eye, there will always be someone they know
are once who trying to tie them down for whatever reason.
(04:13):
And I remember the editor taught me that when a
guy in the UK had just become very famous, very
fast on and I think it was maybe The X
Factor or one of those shows, and he was like
the heart Frog and every woman was obsessed with him.
And then at the magazine I worked at, we received
all these emails one weekend from like an ex of
his saying how horrible and undeserving he was and how
(04:36):
he cheated on her and just you know, he's not
a good guy. And me as the fresh faced junior
writer who just got fucking promoted from the intern and
I was the one who received those emails and I
printed them and I take them into conference, like guys,
look at this, and we all spoke about it, and
I was like, this is crazy, Like we got to
do this on the cover. Everyone's going to be so shocked.
(04:57):
And then the editor in conference and for context conference,
is that what you do every Monday when the whole
magazine sits down, and you kind of plan what you
do in that week. What's going to be the cover,
what's going to be the features, blah blah blah. Anyway,
so in that conference, the editor was like, Josh, have
they got any evidence of a single claim? I was
like no, and he was like has. The guy responded
(05:20):
and I was like no, and then he was like, well,
until any of those things happen, we are not touching this,
and no other media will. And the editor told me
how often in cases like this, an X or someone
will have sent the same message I got to every
other magazine and newspaper because they just wanted someone to
(05:40):
do something negative on this person they personally didn't like.
And also, if you think, well that's obvious, Josh, you
should have knew those things before talking about in conference,
bear in mind I never trained as a journalist. I
barely finished school, and my career just kind of happened,
was accidental. And in this case, the editor of that
magazine found me on social media said hey, do you
(06:01):
want to come down and be a intern for like
two weeks and just help us with a bit of
like YouTube strategy at a time when everyone was going digital,
and like, I impress them so much that they kind
of just offered me a job on the spot. And
the only job they had was like junior writer, junior journalist.
And I was like, well, I've never studied it, didn't
go to UNI. And they were like, ah, that's all right,
we'll just teach you to be a journalist as you go.
(06:22):
But yeah, back to the point, I always remember the
editor saying that, and that was eleven years ago now,
And of course, as people constantly get famous still, like
you know, the same thing is constantly happening with people
from their past trying to tear them down or share
stories or reveal the truth about them. And I suppose
what I'm trying to say is it doesn't matter anymore
(06:44):
if a magazine like I used to work out, or
a website or the media touch a story or not
like that, because these days this social media and people
on social media don't follow the same defamation laws or
need evidence of anything, because anyone can just go online
say anything about anyone, and before you know it, a
(07:07):
million people have watched that, and a reputation can be
ruined within seconds. And I am not saying that's what's
happening here with the Maths dude, And you know it's
just some bit of exes talking shit about him, Like
I'm not saying that at all. I do not know
this guy. I don't know anything about him. He could
be an absolute dickhead, and these women are right in
(07:27):
wanting him removed, and he should be removed. And as
we know, Maths does have a history of casting some
very questionable people. Or this guy could be like lovely
and genuine and he just happens to have pissed off
a few people in his past who are now coming together.
And again, I suppose the point I'm trying to make
in this podcast is until there's evidence or something solid
(07:51):
to go off and make our assumptions on anything like this,
we should all try and remain somewhat impartial. And I
am all for believing victims always, like I think how
I covered domestic violence on this podcast earlier this year
shows my stance on all of those things. And I'm
all for holding shows like Married at First Sight two
(08:14):
account when they do platform people they know they should
never have platformed. But again, a situation like this is
just difficult for everybody involved and for what it's worth,
And it does pain me to say this, because, as
you know, I love to call out the producers and
highlight their failures and negligent in things. But I have
(08:36):
been told by several sources that this year they did
actually become a lot more for with the background checks
before casting anyone on the show after what happened last
season and what that entailed exactly like these checks, I
don't know, but regarding this dude yesterday, I was kind
of doing my own little background looking to him, and
(08:59):
I spoke to the team at SO Sydney, who you
guys may follow, and they report on Maths a lot,
and you know, have pat pictures of the weddings, and
the editor there did like a full background check on
this guy, like putting his name through court listings and that,
and nothing popped up, like there's no evidence of him
(09:19):
front in court for anything, being found not guilty of
any accusations or anything like legal in his past that
they could see, which again makes this situation just difficult
because from the point of view of production, like what
a few months ago they found a guy they liked
who'd applied to be on the show. They then spent
(09:40):
months back and forth interviewing him. They obviously saw a
potential in him that he'd be good for the show
for whatever reason, and he impressed them, and then they
were like, Okay, well we think he's the one. Let's
just do these court checks, please checks whatever. They did that,
and then they all came back clean or like yeah,
I don't know what the word is there, and then
(10:02):
they would have been like, great, green light, let's get
this guy on the show. Let's find him a match.
But now he's on the show. He's been on it
filming for what a week or two weeks, and now
they've got people emailing them urging them to remove him.
And from their side, production, you know, they ticked all
of their boxes, they found nothing. He impressed them, and
(10:23):
unless there is now, like some huge compelling evidence of wrongdoing,
I personally don't think production will take any notice of
these women on TikTok or the people complaining to remove him,
because again, as far as they're concerned, they ticked all
their boxes of background checks and yeah, like I'm talking
(10:45):
in circles now, But the whole thing is hard. And
I've seen people say before that producers shouldn't cast someone
on a show at this unless they speak to at
least two of their exes to find out what they're
really like, you know, in a relationship, which is a
good idea in theory, but also they couldn't do that
because of like how confidential they keep the casting of
(11:06):
these shows. And you know, we all know that those exes,
if they were approached by producers being like, hey, what's
Dave like? You know, you used today and was a
good guy bad guy, those exes would obviously then go
blabbing and names would leak before weddings happened, and it
would spoil the premise of the show because people would
see who they're going to be matched with. And anyway, yeah,
I'm rambling now, sorry about that, but yeah, this episode
(11:28):
is for the people messaging me asking about that, TikTok.
I will report more in this when and if there's
more to report, but as I said right now, I'm
kind of trying to stay impartial and balanced with any reporting.
So yeah,
Hello, and welcome back to the Maths Ony podcast with
Me Joshua Fox and in news that will surprise none
of you, the upcoming twenty twenty six season I've Married
at First I has now hit its first big controversy
just two weeks into production. So a group of women
have united in an effort to get one of the
new grooms kicked off the new season, with several of
(00:22):
them claiming to have some personal history or past with him.
And this could become quite damaging and the situation is
a difficult one for all involved to navigate. So this
what I'm going to call a movement, was started publicly
by a woman named Monica on TikTok, who two days
(00:42):
ago shared this video.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It is really concerning that the MATHS producers have not
done their research. And I'm saying this because I have
many women reaching out to me sharing receipts on this
Maths twenty twenty six groom. All I can say is
the Maths producers have not followed through on what they promised,
(01:06):
and because some women are sharing their concern for their safety,
I need to be very careful with what I share
because I do not want to put anyone in an
uncomfortable situation, but I also want to ensure that we
don't have another season like last like the last season,
(01:31):
because that was absolutely futrid. The behavior from some of
the men on there was absolutely disgusting. I will be
sharing these shared experiences once I have all the receipts
to back them up.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Since then, there's comments from other women like yeah, I
dated this guy too, he shouldn't be on the show.
Several people are saying they've personally emailed production company and
Animal Shine Australia, who make masks, urging them to remove
Here me as a podcaster slash journalist, I've had two
different people now messaging me from burner accounts saying get
(02:07):
him off the show. I know other journalists have received
similar messages, but so far, like I haven't seen anyone
with evidence of any wrongdoing. And this is again why
the whole thing is kind of difficult. And again just
from what I've seen at the time of recording this podcast,
right now, everything is just like mostly vague statements and
(02:30):
comments alluding to some kind of bad behavior from this
person in his past. But again, I'm yet to see
anyone make any actual accusation of something specific. And the
groom is yet to respond to any of this, and
I doubt he will because I don't think production and
the show's publicists will want him adding fuel to the fire.
(02:50):
And that's why I suppose until there is some kind
of tangible and irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing or he does
address anything he's being accused of, I personally don't feel
comfortable naming him in this podcast because as of right now,
all of this feels quite one sided, and I do
(03:11):
think that media, like myself, we have a real responsibility
to remain unbiased. And you probably wouldn't. Well, why am
I even bringing this up on this podcast? And firstly,
it's because that TikTok is getting so much traction that
it kind of has to be addressed because everyone's asking
me about it. And then secondly, there is like a
(03:31):
wider point I want to get to in this about
I don't want to say cancel culture, just more about
how things like this roll out and what it means
from a media point of view. So I remember my
first of a job as a journalist on a weekly
magazine in the UK. I was about twenty two years old,
(03:52):
and the editor said to me once and I'll never
forget this. Behind every celebrity is a bitter X And
I'm not saying that is the case here at all,
but the lesson that editor was teaching me was like
a reminder that as a journalist, whenever someone is in
the public eye, there will always be someone they know
are once who trying to tie them down for whatever reason.
(04:13):
And I remember the editor taught me that when a
guy in the UK had just become very famous, very
fast on and I think it was maybe The X
Factor or one of those shows, and he was like
the heart Frog and every woman was obsessed with him.
And then at the magazine I worked at, we received
all these emails one weekend from like an ex of
his saying how horrible and undeserving he was and how
(04:36):
he cheated on her and just you know, he's not
a good guy. And me as the fresh faced junior
writer who just got fucking promoted from the intern and
I was the one who received those emails and I
printed them and I take them into conference, like guys,
look at this, and we all spoke about it, and
I was like, this is crazy, Like we got to
do this on the cover. Everyone's going to be so shocked.
(04:57):
And then the editor in conference and for context conference,
is that what you do every Monday when the whole
magazine sits down, and you kind of plan what you
do in that week. What's going to be the cover,
what's going to be the features, blah blah blah. Anyway,
so in that conference, the editor was like, Josh, have
they got any evidence of a single claim? I was
like no, and he was like has. The guy responded
(05:20):
and I was like no, and then he was like, well,
until any of those things happen, we are not touching this,
and no other media will. And the editor told me
how often in cases like this, an X or someone
will have sent the same message I got to every
other magazine and newspaper because they just wanted someone to
(05:40):
do something negative on this person they personally didn't like.
And also, if you think, well that's obvious, Josh, you
should have knew those things before talking about in conference,
bear in mind I never trained as a journalist. I
barely finished school, and my career just kind of happened,
was accidental. And in this case, the editor of that
magazine found me on social media said hey, do you
(06:01):
want to come down and be a intern for like
two weeks and just help us with a bit of
like YouTube strategy at a time when everyone was going digital,
and like, I impress them so much that they kind
of just offered me a job on the spot. And
the only job they had was like junior writer, junior journalist.
And I was like, well, I've never studied it, didn't
go to UNI. And they were like, ah, that's all right,
we'll just teach you to be a journalist as you go.
(06:22):
But yeah, back to the point, I always remember the
editor saying that, and that was eleven years ago now,
And of course, as people constantly get famous still, like
you know, the same thing is constantly happening with people
from their past trying to tear them down or share
stories or reveal the truth about them. And I suppose
what I'm trying to say is it doesn't matter anymore
(06:44):
if a magazine like I used to work out, or
a website or the media touch a story or not
like that, because these days this social media and people
on social media don't follow the same defamation laws or
need evidence of anything, because anyone can just go online
say anything about anyone, and before you know it, a
(07:07):
million people have watched that, and a reputation can be
ruined within seconds. And I am not saying that's what's
happening here with the Maths dude, And you know it's
just some bit of exes talking shit about him, Like
I'm not saying that at all. I do not know
this guy. I don't know anything about him. He could
be an absolute dickhead, and these women are right in
(07:27):
wanting him removed, and he should be removed. And as
we know, Maths does have a history of casting some
very questionable people. Or this guy could be like lovely
and genuine and he just happens to have pissed off
a few people in his past who are now coming together.
And again, I suppose the point I'm trying to make
in this podcast is until there's evidence or something solid
(07:51):
to go off and make our assumptions on anything like this,
we should all try and remain somewhat impartial. And I
am all for believing victims always, like I think how
I covered domestic violence on this podcast earlier this year
shows my stance on all of those things. And I'm
all for holding shows like Married at First Sight two
(08:14):
account when they do platform people they know they should
never have platformed. But again, a situation like this is
just difficult for everybody involved and for what it's worth,
And it does pain me to say this, because, as
you know, I love to call out the producers and
highlight their failures and negligent in things. But I have
(08:36):
been told by several sources that this year they did
actually become a lot more for with the background checks
before casting anyone on the show after what happened last
season and what that entailed exactly like these checks, I
don't know, but regarding this dude yesterday, I was kind
of doing my own little background looking to him, and
(08:59):
I spoke to the team at SO Sydney, who you
guys may follow, and they report on Maths a lot,
and you know, have pat pictures of the weddings, and
the editor there did like a full background check on
this guy, like putting his name through court listings and that,
and nothing popped up, like there's no evidence of him
(09:19):
front in court for anything, being found not guilty of
any accusations or anything like legal in his past that
they could see, which again makes this situation just difficult
because from the point of view of production, like what
a few months ago they found a guy they liked
who'd applied to be on the show. They then spent
(09:40):
months back and forth interviewing him. They obviously saw a
potential in him that he'd be good for the show
for whatever reason, and he impressed them, and then they
were like, Okay, well we think he's the one. Let's
just do these court checks, please checks whatever. They did that,
and then they all came back clean or like yeah,
I don't know what the word is there, and then
(10:02):
they would have been like, great, green light, let's get
this guy on the show. Let's find him a match.
But now he's on the show. He's been on it
filming for what a week or two weeks, and now
they've got people emailing them urging them to remove him.
And from their side, production, you know, they ticked all
of their boxes, they found nothing. He impressed them, and
(10:23):
unless there is now, like some huge compelling evidence of wrongdoing,
I personally don't think production will take any notice of
these women on TikTok or the people complaining to remove him,
because again, as far as they're concerned, they ticked all
their boxes of background checks and yeah, like I'm talking
(10:45):
in circles now, But the whole thing is hard. And
I've seen people say before that producers shouldn't cast someone
on a show at this unless they speak to at
least two of their exes to find out what they're
really like, you know, in a relationship, which is a
good idea in theory, but also they couldn't do that
because of like how confidential they keep the casting of
(11:06):
these shows. And you know, we all know that those exes,
if they were approached by producers being like, hey, what's
Dave like? You know, you used today and was a
good guy bad guy, those exes would obviously then go
blabbing and names would leak before weddings happened, and it
would spoil the premise of the show because people would
see who they're going to be matched with. And anyway, yeah,
I'm rambling now, sorry about that, but yeah, this episode
(11:28):
is for the people messaging me asking about that, TikTok.
I will report more in this when and if there's
more to report, but as I said right now, I'm
kind of trying to stay impartial and balanced with any reporting.
So yeah,
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