tv

A Married at First Sight contestant shares the sneaky way they film wedding scenes.

You may remember Simone Lee-Brennan as the “romance-obsessed” wife of Xavier Forzzy from Season two of Married at First Sight.

The pair had sparked up a fierce romance: they connected on an emotional level after their wedding, and arguably got along better than any of the other couples for the first week of the experiment.

But after Simone, a 29-year-old Sydney-based make-up artist, was portrayed as almost cloyingly romantic, the pair went their separate ways.

Simone speaks to The Recap about her time on Married At First Sight…

She was portrayed by the show as the ‘romance-obsessed’ wife. But as we suspected, what we saw on the show was not exactly what went down.

In an exclusive interview with Clare Stephens and Laura Brodnik on The Recap, Simone gives insight into what really happens on-set, on the back of Monday night’s Season four premiere.

“They’re gonna hone in on one thing and for me it was romance,” she said.

“For me they just cut and copied everything about romance and put it together when it wasn’t really all about that as such… everything happened, but it just didn’t happen like that.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the producers fault as such. It’s probably post production, and they want a story out of it.”

Simone, 29 with husband Xavier, 26, after being married at first sight. via Channel 9.

The weddings prove to be among the most significant talking points each season, and Monday night's Season four premiere was no exception.

As viewers, the wedding ceremonies themselves come across as polished and real. But according to Simone, this couldn't be further from what really happens.

"The wedding was filmed from 7am until 4am the following day... they make you film it over and over again", she says.

"I walked down the aisle four times... we said our vows three times, and we kissed at the altar twice.

"By the end of it I was just like 'Hey guys...' By then people were laughing, because it's like... 'this is kinda silly now'.

ADVERTISEMENT

According to Simone, the most nerve-wracking part of being married on the show is actually walking down the aisle. But not for the reason you'd expect.

"You walk down the aisle to no music. It's completely silent", she says. "What you don't see is there's about 100 film crew standing around... staring at you walking down this aisle in complete silence."

The surprise of the wedding for the couples, however, is completely real.

"I actually didn't know the location of my wedding until the day of, which was a whole part of the experience... I picked out my dress three days before the wedding... you actually don't know anything."

Simone also spilled the beans about the conversations we see the couples have in the weeks following the wedding:

"You do get to learn a lot about each other off-camera... a lot of the conversations that you saw were re-enacted, or the producers said 'Can you please talk about this now'... something like 'Okay do you want children', and go..."

The Recap host Laura Brodnik shared our sentiments with Simone upon discovering the highly produced nature of the show.

"As a viewer we think you guys are seeing everything for the first time, so it's a bit of camera magic there."

Laura goes on, "Do you at least feel you were portrayed in an honest way?"

"I was really really lucky. I had two great producers who were really supportive of me and what I was going through at the time but I have heard other stories from other people", she says.

Season 4 of Married at First Sight airs Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights on Channel 9.

You can listen to the full run-down of MAFS episode 2, here:

You can find out more about Simone Lee-Brennan here.

You can buy any book mentioned on our podcasts, from ibooks at apple.co/mamamia, where you can also subscribe to all our other shows in one place.