Married At First Sight‘s Melissa Rawson has explained why she always seems so quiet around her ‘husband’ Bryce Ruthven on the show.
The workplace trainer, 31, told Kyle and Jackie O it bothers her that viewers think she’s unable to stand up for herself around her partner.
Meanwhile, radio announcer Bryce insisted to Jonesy and Amanda they have a ‘healthy’ relationship, despite claims he’s ‘gaslighting’ her.
‘It looks like I’m quite pathetic and weak’: Married At First Sight’s Melissa Rawson has explained why she always seems so quiet around her ‘husband’ Bryce Ruthven on the show
Melissa acknowledged that she does look ‘quite pathetic and weak on TV’, but said this is just because she likes to avoid conflict.
‘It does look like I’m quite pathetic and weak,’ she told Kyle and Jackie O.
‘But it’s just my personality, I don’t like confrontation and I was still getting to know Bryce in those early days, and so right now I’m more than happy to have a go at him for anything he says and does.’
Explanation: ‘It’s just my personality, I don’t like confrontation and I was still getting to know Bryce in those early days,’ she told The Kyle and Jackie O Show
She added that the environment on Married At First Sight was so ‘toxic’ that she just kept quiet to keep the peace.
‘It was just so toxic and it wasn’t because of Bryce. Yeah, he did a lot of stupid s**t, let’s be honest… [but] he was standing up for me and a lot wasn’t shown.’
Meanwhile, Bryce told Jonesy and Amanda that he and Melissa have a ‘healthy’ relationship, despite many fans thinking otherwise.
‘Yeah, I think we kept saying it throughout the show and saw it, saying we’re going to ditch the boys’ and girls’ night,’ he began.
‘People kept saying we segregated ourselves, but when you’re not getting along in a group dynamic with other people and the sole focus to go on this show was to meet someone, you concentrate on what you came there for.’
He’s adamant: Meanwhile, Bryce told Jonesy and Amanda that they have a ‘healthy’ relationship, despite many fans thinking otherwise
On Monday, a Change.org petition began circulating that demanded Channel Nine issue an apology for airing ‘triggering’ scenes involving the ‘gaslighting’ groom and his long-suffering wife.
The petition, which received 2,500 signatures in under 24 hours, is also calling for Nine to acknowledge its alleged ‘failure of duty of care’ towards Melissa.
‘This season of Married at First Sight Australia features a couple, Melissa and Bryce, who portray an excessive amount of [troubling] signs which are not being handled by the network appropriately,’ the petition states.
‘There is a clear failure of duty of care to Melissa during filming of the show, allowing her to remain in a toxic and dangerous environment with her partner for the “benefit” of the network.’
Petition: On Monday, a Change.org petition began circulating that demanded Channel Nine issue an apology for airing ‘triggering’ scenes involving the ‘gaslighting’ groom and his long-suffering wife
‘She is being subject to gaslighting, emotional manipulation, isolation, and countless other textbook signs of a controlling relationship,’ the petition goes on to claim, adding that the scenes are ‘incredibly triggering and stressful to watch’.
It continues: ‘This petition is for the Nine Network to acknowledge and apologise for letting Melissa go through this and also airing such a horrible relationship on TV without doing anything to showcase that the relationship is clearly not healthy.’
Similar outrage has exploded on Twitter, where many viewers are calling for the show to be cancelled or boycotted over its depiction of toxic relationships.
Bryce and Melissa’s ‘marriage’ has also been an issue of contention for the show’s other couples, who largely disapprove of the relationship.
Controversial: Similar outrage has exploded on Twitter, where many viewers are calling for the show to be cancelled or boycotted over its depiction of toxic relationships. Bryce and Melissa’s ‘marriage’ has also been an issue of contention for the show’s other couples, who largely disapprove of the relationship
On Sunday’s episode of Married At First Sight, Bryce humiliated his bride at the commitment ceremony by revealing he’d initially voted to leave the experiment, before ultimately deciding to stay.
Bryce later defended writing leave, saying he didn’t want to break up with Melissa but instead wanted the couple to exit the ‘toxic environment’ of the experiment.
The other couples lashed out at him, citing a string of incidents in which he repeatedly showed disregard for Melissa’s feelings.
Bryce tried to justify his behaviour in a lengthy post on Instagram on Sunday.
‘People won’t agree with what I’ve done at the commitment ceremony saying I didn’t put my partner’s feelings first BUT I was raising the issue that bullying is not OK in any walk of life,’ he wrote.
‘It was a tough decision to continue in the experiment given what we were going through, but in the end, the goal of finding love with someone will always win.’