Married At First Sight’s Katie Johnston no stranger to Sunshine Coast news

She’s now known as the “powerhouse in sexy curvy package” Qld bride cruelly matched with primary-school teacher-turned Married At First Sight villain groom Tim but it’s not the first-time an emotional Katie has been in the media spotlight.

In a 2020 interview, Katie Johnston said she was shattered to find her Restaurant EATS had been broken into as the hospitality industry battled to survive the pandemic. Photo Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

Maligned Married At First Sight bride Katie Johnston, who has amassed an army of sympathetic supporters since being rejected by a self-proclaimed “nice guy” groom, is no stranger to the spotlight on her Sunshine Coast home turf.

This publication can reveal she’s regularly appeared in local media interviews and articles over the years for highs and lows.

In May 2020 a teary Katie said she was devastated to find her Sunshine Coast restaurant had been ransacked at “the worst of times”.

The EATS Restaurant owner from Eumundi said at the time she had received a call from a staff member who got a shock when opening the shop.

Katie Johnston tears up in photos taken following a break-in at her Sunshine Coast eatery. Photo Patrick Woods

Two iPads and packaged meals had been stolen along with about $3200 cash from the till.

Earlier, in an open letter to her “hideous” Noosa beach bullies, published in the Sunshine Coast Daily in 2018 Katie said she was still in shock over the “disgusting” verbal abuse she received while telling a family their car was parked on protected sand dunes.

“It’s like they knew they were wrong but had no argument so they started picking on our physical appearances because we aren’t size sixes,” she wrote.

“One thing that was particularly nasty and something I had never heard before was ‘get your hail-damaged arses out of here’ … they said that in front of their children.”

She’s also been nominated for various awards featured in an ABC story for her range of “Eco Bling” with the article stating Eumundi’s Katie was “kicking some goals in the fashion world using recycled products” and was a panellist at the Sunshine Coast Fashion Festival.

Katie Johnston says she was bullied while on a day trip to the Noosa North Shore.

Katie’s introductory scenes for MAFS were filmed close to home.

This included the now-viral wedding dress fitting room clip where she can be seen breaking down in tears and lamenting that reality show nuptials are not the way dream weddings are supposed to unfold but she’s out of other options, at Luv Bridal, Maroochydore.

The dressis worn by Katie in the episode where she nervously weds Victorian sports teacher Tim, telling him she is “so glad you are brave enough to be here” and describing herself as a “confident strong, ambitious woman … basically a powerhouse wrapped in a sexy curvy package”.

Tim, who previously insisted he was sick of “nice guys” finishing last and did not have a certain “type” is all smiles at the altar, but post vows is filmed asking a producer “what the *f***” and appearing traumatised that his bride is not the “petite blonde” he now admits he would ordinarily be attracted to.

Endless social-media posts have since painted Tim as a “no oil painting himself” man who is setting a bad example for his students and Katie as the red-haired heroine who deserves better.

Originally published as Married At First Sight’s Katie Johnston no stranger to Sunshine Coast news