Sunrise and Martha Kalifatidis ‘bullying’ battle continues to rage into its third day

The Channel 7 Sunrise team have been slammed by former Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis for “bullying” her on-air after David Koch claimed he was elbowed out of the way by her at the Logies.

David Koch and Channel 7 remain unrepentant about claims they bullied reality star Martha Kalifatidis, saying, in the words of controversial Gold Logie winner Tom Gleeson, the former Married At First Sight contestant just needs to “lighten up”.

Koch and co-hosts Samantha Armytage, Natalie Barr and Mark Beretta, all had a dig at Kalifatidis the morning after the Logies, with Koch claiming he had bruises on his ribs from the brunette elbowing him on the red carpet.

Married At First Sight stars Martha Kalifatidis was told to “lighten up” by Sunrise. Picture: Matrix

David Koch claims Kalifatidis elbowed him on the red carpet. Picture: AAP Image/Josh Woning

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The others then piled on with negative comments including, “I could not pick her out of a line-up,” “She had attitude” and “Do not get between Martha and the camera.”

Kalifatidis subsequently responded to the claims online, denying she elbowed Koch and saying he should be more mature.

She also said the on-air bullying had affected her mental state at a time when she was trying to repair her reputation off the back of her controversial portrayal on MAFS.

But not willing to admit any wrongdoing, Koch mocked the incident again on Tuesday morning after Armytage grabbed him by the arm.

“Careful,” he said. “That’s bullying me. I’m older. Haven’t you … I’m an old man,” he spluttered, feigning outrage.

Armytage erupted with laughter before saying, “Don’t muck around with that word,” seeming to sense they were in dangerous territory.

The pair quickly moved on.

The Sunrise panel, including Koch, Samantha Armytage, Natalie Barr and Mark Beretta all had a dig at the former MAFS star. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

Channel 7 declined to comment, but sources say “while the incident (the elbowing) did happen, Kochie has moved on with life and talking about it on the show was all in good fun. As Tom Gleeson said, lighten up.”

When contacted by Confidential on Wednesday, Kalifatidis took issue with this, referencing a segment on Seven’s Sunday Night where former reality stars opened up about being suicidal due to the bullying they received from their 15 minutes.

“They did a whole section with Clare (Verrall) from MAFS about how she developed a mental illness from the bullying and yet here they are, Sam and Kochie, are doing the exact same thing to me,” she said.

“The one thing that was so annoying is the elbow incident, there is not one ounce of truth to it. I don’t even remember crossing paths.”

Kalifatidis took issue with Sunrise’s stance, referencing a segment featuring MAFS Clare on Sunday Night on former reality stars feeling suicidal from bullying.

Kalifatidis also found it ironic that Armytage had since set her Instagram to private to stop backlash.

“If I need to just lighten up why doesn’t she lighten up?,” Kalifatidis said. “She can see now that it’s not nice to be on the receiving end of bullying. She couldn’t handle one day of it — this has been my life for months.”

Kalifatidis’ teacher boyfriend Michael Brunelli, who she met on the MAFS and remain together now, also posted distressed videos online saying she had been deeply affected by the comments, as well as Armytage’s input.

This morning the breakfast duo brought up Kalifatidis for the third day in a row unprovoked, with Armytage saying “don’t give her the airtime”.