Outgoing MAFS star Poppy Jennings unleashes on Nine Network over show’s ‘dirty tricks’
Married At First Sight bride Poppy Jennings has broken her contract to exclusively reveal how Nine staff had “threatened” her on set and said she should’ve just taken her Dad’s advice.
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Hit reality TV show Married At First Sight has been rocked by explosive claims from a contestant that staff manipulated her into saying things on camera by threatening her that if she did not do so “Australia will f … ing hate me”.
Outgoing contestant Poppy Jennings exclusively told The Daily Telegraph she was deliberately portrayed on the hit show as “a bogan single mum” and a “miserable whinger” to fit in with “an agenda”.
In contrast to her portrayal as a hysterical mother quitting because she missed her twin boys, Jennings claims she was not allowed to say what was really happening behind the scenes, including the truth about her relationship with television husband Luke Eglin.
She was ordered to “fake” the chemistry for the camera, she said.
Jennings took to Facebook to lament her portrayal and subsequent backlash on the heavily edited reality show from production company Endemol Shine Australia that has been a ratings juggernaut for Channel 9.
On Monday night’s episode, Jennings appeared emotional as she made the decision to leave while her husband was shown in tears, and in a more favourable light.
Jennings, 38, said what really happened was edited out and not conveyed in the episode.
“Why is Luke crying when I left???” Jennings wrote in a Facebook post that has since been removed. “What really happened that he was crying over! You don’t know because I wasn’t allowed to say!!”
The photographer from Wollongong later told The Telegraph “the intense” experience of eight days’ filming had left her highly distressed.
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“I didn’t like Luke, I tried really hard when they told me to,” she said. “There was something about him that creeped me out, something in my gut made me feel something was off,” she said.
An argument captured on camera between her and father-of-two Luke in which she expressed her feelings about how he made her feel “uncomfortable” was never aired.
“I said I wanted to leave, that he creeps me out and they filmed it, I begged them to air it as my exit scene but they didn’t,” she said.
“They make him out to be a hero and me a miserable whinger because I wasn’t allowed to express myself. I was assured I’d get a good edit if I dropped it.”
“I should have listened to my dad and gone on Masterchef.”
On camera Jennings gave little explanation behind her decision other than that she missed her kids.
The storyline painted the mother of two-year-old twin boys as the initiator of the split from Eglin, 39, a fly-in-fly-out maintenance supervisor from Melbourne.
Contestants on the show were based at Sydney’s Skye Suites for filming at the end of 2019, with the show launching on Channel 9 earlier this month.
“I understand people are reacting to what they see on TV but they see 1% of what actually goes on,” Jennings said in the post that attracted more than 10,000 comments before it was deleted.
Married At First Sight is in its seventh season, pairing 20 singles from across the country in what they label a reality TV ‘‘social experiment’’.
The couples marry in a fake ceremony, go on a honeymoon and live as husband and wife after being paired by relationship experts John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Trisha Stratford with the aim of seeing whether or not true love blossoms.
Just a handful of couples from previous seasons have managed to stay together.
Jennings claimed the show was more concerned about ratings than contestants’ feelings.
“When they filmed me in the house they made me look more like a bogan single mum, by rearranging the kitchen and asking me to scrub off my make-up. They have an agenda and they need characters on the show.
“I was supposed to be matched carefully with this guy who I was told would sniff a T-shirt to see if our pheromones matched but that never happened it was a lie, he never smelled my T-shirt.
“The show is all about ratings.
“Endemol filmed a huge argument between us and portrayed him as a hero and crying when I walked out – but yet I was the one that was genuinely upset over what had happened.”
She also took aim at the production company.
“I was so distressed, look I wasn’t traumatised about what happened between Luke and me.
“I’ve been through worse, my divorce. My husband leaving me for his 25-year-old co worker’s hit me pretty hard but I got over it.
“It was the fact when I complained to Endemol they told me ‘it’s too controversial, what you’re saying is defamatory.’
“I was scared of Endemol, I’d signed a contract with them and I was told that I wasn’t allowed to complain.
“I was more upset about the cover up than what actually happened. I know I signed up for the show but I didn’t expect to be treated like that by the production company.
“Once, Endemol sat me down and said that if I complain I will end up being hated by the like the previous contestant Ines (Basic) for not trying enough with Luke.
“But I didn’t go on the show to hold a bottle of Bondi Sands on TV, I went to find love after my marriage broke down.
“When it didn’t happen I shrugged it off and thought I’d be okay, I don’t really want a man ever again, I’m happy being a mum to my boys.
“The show’s crap, I can’t bring myself to watch it, I was never going to get invited to the Logies anyway.
“I’m just a girl from Berkeley who likes drinking bourbon from the can.”
Visibly distressed, Ms Jennings accused Endemol of blocking media requests for interviews on NW magazine, Woman’s Day, on Nova and the Today Show for fear of her “bad mouthing” Luke.
Channel 9 refused to comment when contacted about Jennings’ earlier Facebook allegations.
The network has pointed out to its detractors that contestants are offered support during the show from individual producers trained in mental health first aid, as well as a show psychologist and ongoing psychological support after filming. Staff are particularly sensitive in the wake of former Love Island UK host Caroline Flack’s death from suicide in the UK at the weekend.
Jennings claimed on Facebook she could not say what had happened behind the scenes “as it was too controversial”. She admitted she would “probably hate me too” if she really was the person she was portrayed to be in the show.
“I’m not some whingeing little weak person that is going to be silenced,” she said.
Jennings also claimed ‘‘professional experts’’ who advise contestants on the show never met Eglin before shooting.
“I was there, I was uncomfortable with all the things about this person I was matched with that didn’t add up! But I was told ‘poppy, on camera and off camera don’t exist to the public’. I was so scared, I was saying shit like ‘this could work’ because they told me Australia was going to f … ing hate me.”
When contacted on Tuesday, Eglin said Jennings “has blown up and just needs her own space”. “I don’t know where you are getting all of this from,” he said. “I am not going to make any comments because honestly, the best way to react is not to react.
“To be honest, Poppy is a good person and the best of luck to her. I am not going to comment on anything because it is not worth it, it really isn’t. Honestly, she just needs to move on like I have and that is it. We are finished on the show and that is as far as it goes to be honest dude.”
Originally published as Outgoing MAFS star Poppy Jennings unleashes on Nine Network over show’s ‘dirty tricks’