Married At First Sight’s Cheryl Maitland busted organising paparazzi photos

IT’S tricky extending your 15 minutes of fame once your reality TV stint is over. Just ask Married At First Sight’s Cheryl Maitland.

MARRIED At First Sight’s Cheryl Maitland has been embarrassingly sprung trying to co-ordinate a “candid” photo shoot with paparazzi.

The reality TV star has enjoyed a quick rise to fame thanks to her explosive appearance on the latest season of the dating show — she boasts more than 160,000 followers on Instagram, and is regularly papped going about her day.

But just how candid are these outings?

A young Sydney photographer has exposed a series of messages he shared with Cheryl, in which she appears to have hit him up with her itinerary.

During the conversation, she tells 20-year-old Jayden Seyfarth she’ll be heading to Melbourne, and asks which photo set may work best.

Seyfarth posted the conversation on his Instagram story, captioning it: “When they need to stay relevant”. Ouch.

Oops.

Cheryl’s Instagram profile.

When contacted by news.com.au, Cheryl explained that she tries to cooperate with photographers where she can, in a bid to keep them from hounding her.

“He messages me all the time to see where I am,” she said.

“I’m frankly getting annoyed with paps taking photos of me when I don’t know and it makes me on edge every day.

“I mentioned to him [Seyfarth] I would be in Melbourne and if he wanted to meet me there that was fine... The paps are going to take photos of me no matter what, so if I already know I won’t be so stressed out and they won’t be following me as much.”

Cheryl’s not the first ex-Married star to be accused of using paparazzi to capitalise on their fifteen minutes.

Earlier this month, News Corp reported Nadia Stamp had offered up the opportunity to buy photos and details of her new relationship — for a hefty sum.

Shopping details of her boyfriend to the highest bidder, Nadia said: “It is my personal life, so you need to think about what that might be worth. I’ve heard it could be around up to $4000. My personal life is my personal life so it’s not just me I have to consider.”

When asked about the identity of the new man, Nadia said: “if you want to have a think about it and come back to me … but I’m not just going to give information away.”

In a separate incident, the part-time model also denied she had posed for set-up paparazzi shots, including a photo of her reaching for a pregnancy test which appeared in Woman’s Day magazine.

And it’s not just former reality TV contestants adopting the strategy: in March, TV and radio presenter Osher Gunsberg revealed he’d also tipped off paparazzi in the past.

“I’m happy to admit I’ve absolutely staged photos for magazines. It’s no secret in the industry it happens,” he admitted on Brisbane’s HIT 105 breakfast show.