‘Ballsiest thing he did all season’: How Married At First Sight bride Lauren really feels about the reunion

“I was impressed to be honest,” Lauren said about her MAFS husband walking into the reunion with the bride he claimed he wasn’t involved with. “I didn’t think he’d have the guts.”

Lauren Dunn says her Married At First Husband walking into Sunday night’s reunion special with another bride was “the ballsiest thing he did all season.”

“I was impressed to be honest,” the Perth-based PR and marketing executive told The Daily Telegraph. “I didn’t think he’d have the guts.”

“I definitely did feel vindicated because I knew in my gut that something was going on between them, but I’m also happy for them. They are a way better match.”

Lauren Dunn and Jonathan McCullough on Married At First Sight. Photo: Nine/Supplied.

Dunn was matched with New South Wales health business owner Jono McCullough in the reality television ‘social experiment’, while fellow MAFS bride Ellie Dix was partnered with controversial groom Ben Walters.

When it was revealed on-camera that McCullough had exchanged more than 100 text messages with Dix while he was still on the series with Dunn, he vehemently maintained his innocence.

Lauren Dunn. Picture: Nine

Ellie Dix. Picture: Nine

In his explosive final vows to Dunn, McCullough added: “You snatched my phone off me and pretended like the messages to Ellie were flirty. They were not. Seeing you so willing to lie like that to make me look bad astonished me. This is when I realised you weren’t my person.”

Lauren Dunn is now happily single. Picture: Richard Dobson/The Daily Telegraph.

Speaking to Confidential from Perth, alongside best friend and MAFS bride Sara Mesa, Dunn said the rest of the cast knew her ex-partner planned to bring Dix to the reunion.

“I realised later down the line that almost all the cast knew that Ellie and Jono were in a relationship and that they were coming to the reunion together,” Dunn said.

“I had no idea.”

“I know that everyone would’ve been told by production ‘don’t tell Lauren’, because they wanted to see my honest reaction,” she said. “I still wish someone had given me a heads up.”

Lauren Dunn at a MAFS dinner party. Picture: Nine

The first half of the reunion, which aired on Sunday night, saw a loved up McCullogh and Dix confront Dunn.

“When they walked in, neither of them even acknowledged that I was sitting there. I said hi to Ellie and she completely ignored me, like I’d done something wrong,” she said.

“Jono really ripped into me. He said you’re the nastiest person I’ve ever met, and that I never cared for or liked him.”

Sara Mesa and Tim Calwell on Married At First Sight season 11. Picture: Nine

McCullogh tried to “get the heat off himself,” by throwing Mesa’s MAFS husband Tim Calwell under the bus, Dunn said.

McCullogh had formed a close friendship with Calwell throughout the season, she added, but then he dropped the bombshell that Calwell had been on Tinder after making his final vows to Mesa as a deflection.

“Every single person got thrown under the bus by Jono at one point or another. He blurted out that Tim told him that if he’d had more time to make a decision, he might have made a different one, meanwhile telling Sara that he was so happy.”

Married At First Sight cast members from the Gold Coast: (left to right) Jack. Ellie, Jayden, Eden, and Tim. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Lucinda Light and Timothy Smith at a MAFS dinner party. Picture: NOVA Entertainment

“All Jono did all season was try and make himself look a certain way, which I could feel, and that’s why I never really connected with him.”

The new couple’s heavy PDA at the dinner table didn’t upset her as much as the support they received from the group.

“It wasn’t that that bothered me, it was that everyone else was so happy for them and encouraging them. It was a bit of a slap in the face.”

Lauren Dunn said she feels like she was meant to go on MAFS to meet her best friend, Sara Mesa. Picture: NOVA Entertainment

Fortunately castmates Lucinda Light, Timothy Smith, Jade Pywell and Ridge Barredo had her back. Light, a Byron Bay celebrant who quickly emerged as the fan favourite of the Channel 9 show, has launched her own wellbeing subscription business off the back of her sudden fame.

“She’s the most genuinely amazing human you’ll ever meet in your life,” Dunn said.

“At this point if Lucinda started a cult, we would all join.”

Dunn had ended a six year relationship prior to signing up for MAFS, and said she is now happily single.

“I probably wasn’t ready to be honest. But I’m so glad I did it because I met my best friend, Sara. I feel like I was meant to go on that show to meet her.”

As for the social media hate that comes with reality TV, Dunn had some choice words for the online trolls in her DMs: “I don’t suffer the opinions of fools and most people that comment on these kinds of things aren’t the people I would lend my coat to in the rain.

“One: Following a MAFS fan account online is embarrassing. Two: Get a hobby. If you’re so triggered by my lips, look away.”

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Originally published as ‘Ballsiest thing he did all season’: How Married At First Sight bride Lauren really feels about the reunion