reality tv

A MAFS bride was missing from the reunion. Now we know why.

Another season of MAFS bites the dust with the two-part reunion spectacular airing over this past Sunday and Monday.

Some couples fought, another made their debut, there was plenty of screaming across the dinner table before our experts had the final word on this year's cast's chaotic behaviour — much fun was had!

But there was one contestant noticeably absent. "No psychic lady! Anyone else missing?" wrote one comment on X.

This is true. The experiment's psychic medium, Madeleine Maxwell, did not appear on either parts of the reunion. Fans will remember Madeline as the bride matched with Ash Galati.

Madeline previously starred on Home and Away and currently cries at the sight of cows. 

So where was Madeline? An insider told Yahoo Lifestyle that producers opted not to invite the divisive bride as they believed her "unpredictability" could "derail" the evening.

Madeline proved to be 2024's quirkiest bride. Image: Nine. 

"Most people in production thought that Madeleine struggled with the pressures of the experiment during filming, so it felt easier not to bring her back — especially for a dinner party that was inevitably going to be an intense one from the start," the insider claimed. 

Another source added that Madeline has grown distant since exiting early from the experiment, saying "virtually no cast members have had any contact with Madeleine" and went as far as saying it was "as if she was never there".

A source told So Dramatic! a similar story, but claimed Madeleine even asked producers if she could attend.

"She wanted to go," they said. "They had a conversation around her attending the reunion under certain conditions, but Madeleine wouldn’t agree to their terms, so they told her she wasn’t allowed to go."

Ash and Madeline on their honeymoon disaster. Image: Nine. 

For her part, Madeline has addressed her absence in an on-brand statement. 

"I chose not to go to the reunion because I did not feel in alignment with the production itself," Madeline rather vaguely told the Daily Mail.

"The production itself was something that was contradictory to what they sell Australia."

I'm using this line next time I need to cancel my gym membership. 

This isn't the first time a contestant hasn't appeared on the reunion, as it happened with Sam Ball in 2019 and Andrew Davis in 2022, although both these grooms had left the experiment off the back of sizeable controversies. 

Madeline's ex-partner Ash shared his thoughts on the psychic's no-show. 

''I had an obligation to come back to myself, to the show, to the other couples. So I did the right thing and I showed up. But she didn't," Ash told the Daily Mail

"As far as I know, no one's heard from her." 

Considering Madeline spent their honeymoon fluctuating between not speaking to Ash to then telling him repeatedly that she 'loves him' after she cried in a field of cows after regretting a steak dinner... yep, this checks out. 

As she was on the 2024 season, Madeline will remain an enigma. 

Feature image: Nine. 

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Top Comments

hurricane_37 a month ago
The weight question is to avoid any awful situation whereby a man or woman is appalled by being paired with someone they deem not to their physical standard. Imagine the shame for someone who might be considered overweight being paired with Jack for instance. 

So for safe pairings, you make sure there's a basic level of attraction otherwise someone could be jilted on the wedding night and then you've lost a couple immediately (that's never good) AND production have embarrassed someone on national television. That is why you will see that the casting is often homogenous. Not racially homogenous. That is NEVER a brief. But homogenous in terms of the standard of attractiveness. Good teeth, looks after themselves, etc.

This is why Love Island works so well. The format relies on multiple entanglements and people being attracted to multiple people. 
And it works because everyone is super hot. Imagine the questions on those questionnaires.