MAFS’ Davina Rankin laments life after reality TV show
SHE’S the biggest star of the biggest show on Australian television — but just 24 hours after the explosive end to Married At First Sight, Davina Rankin’s life in the limelight is already fading into lonely obscurity.
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SHE’S the biggest star of the biggest show on Australian television — but just 24 hours after the explosive end to Married At First Sight, Davina Rankin’s life in the limelight is already fading into lonely obscurity.
The 27-year-old TV villain revealed to The Daily Telegraph all she had to show from her time on the Channel 9 smash were pictures of genitalia sent by sleazy suitors, unending abuse from online trolls and a minder from the network to guide her around B-list shindigs.
“I get a lot of d... pics but no one wants to date me,” she said.
“No one was watching how I acted on that show going, ‘I want to date her’.
“But I don’t want to date someone who judges me anyway, so it’s filtering out the bad ones.”
While it may seem glamorous appearing on the TV screens of millions across Australia, the reality for MAFS stars such as Rankin is very different.
The season finale was watched by 1.753 million viewers, but any of the aspiring celebrities hoping to cash in will struggle to make their dream come true if they haven’t studied the fine print.
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Endemol Shine, the production company behind MAFS, said each of the participants is under contract to them for several more months. This means they are not allowed to make any money off the back of the show without approval.
But that hasn’t stopped some being shopped to media within hours of the final episode hitting the small screen.
And appearing on MAFS is no goldmine either. It is understood those looking for love are paid about $150 a day during filming — and the last episode was recorded in January.
After that it is back to earth with a bump, despite the show still airing across Australia.
A source close to Rankin said she “wasn’t too interested in doing anything at the moment, unless she would be paid”.
Co-star Justin Fischer said he always thought it was fine to give interviews as long as no money exchanged hands but believed his contract had now ended.
“We all talk to each other and all of our understanding is, you can’t make a profit out of it, you can’t be selling photos or stories or anything like that, but now it’s finished it’s fine,” he said.
Some resort to posing for lads mags in an attempt to maintain a place in the public eye, with twins Sharon and Michelle Marsh from last year’s show appearing in this month’s Maxim.