Axed MAFS groom Simon Blackburn spotted in bucks party episode

Despite Channel 9’s best efforts, a groom who was axed from the show shortly after filming began has been spotted in one of the episodes.

A Married At First Sight groom who was dumped from the show shortly after filming started has emerged in one of the episodes.

Simon Blackburn, who was axed by Channel 9 after a TikTok video surfaced of him disrespecting women and calling gay men “filth”, was spotted on Monday’s premiere episode in attendance at the bucks party.

The Melbourne-based FIFO worker had filmed his wedding with bride Jessica Seracino, who was also present at the hens night.

Simon Blackburn was spotted among the grooms during the bucks party episode.

Seracino, 27, made producers aware of the damning social media videos of Blackburn, after discovering them when she noticed some “red flags” on her TV wedding day.

She was reportedly moved to a separate hotel room when Blackburn was immediately sacked from the show, which saw thousands of dollars in production go to waste.

Seracino was paired with a new groom, with the pair set to feature as an intruder couple in the coming episodes.

It comes after Blackburn appeared in a trailer last year for the dating show, before damaging TikTok videos of him emerged shortly afterwards.

Simon was axed from the show after his ceremony was filmed.

In them, he referred to his ex-girlfriend as a “c**t” several times, while also claiming he refused to date women “over 60 kilos”.

Taking to social media in November after it was revealed he would no longer appear on the 2022 season of MAFS, Blackburn said he made the hateful videos to build a following for a betting company he was working for.

“I have been receiving a lot of hate mail telling me what type of person I am,‘ he said, refuting the allegations.

“Back in the day when I was on TikTok it was all about chasing chookies with the lads whether you were single or you were on the punt and making money.

“What a lot of people didn’t understand was I am a businessman. My product was GorillaBets. I would say anything that I had to say to get views to bring people [to the website] so we can grow GorillaBets to what it is now, and we have 7700 members.”

He apologised for his comments, before denying reports his MAFS bride was “fearful” of him during filming.

Jessica will feature on MAFS as an intruder in the coming episodes.

Simon Blackburn was cut from the show.

“I have said some interesting comments regarding women, calling them safety hazards, this and that, which is something I regret,” he said.

“I’m not racist. I don’t like underage women. I’m not misogynistic or whatever you want to call it.”

He added: “I’ll tell you something about dangerous. I don’t make moves on women, they make moves on me. I’m the prize, not them. So let’s just clear that up.

“All these people saying my MAFS bride was in fear. I’ve never been more nice to my MAFS wife in my life, holding her dress, making sure it wasn’t near the candles.

“My MAFS wife told me, ‘You’re too nice. I’m not used to a guy like you.’”

A Channel 9 spokesperson previously said Blackburn was removed from the series as soon as the network became aware of the videos.