Body language expert says MAFS’ Bryce and Melissa have ‘a FATHER-DAUGHTER relationship’

A body language expert has broken down the manipulations, power plays and victim behaviour between Married at First Sight stars Bryce Ruthven and Melissa Rawson.

Famed expert Allan Pease spoke with HIT Queensland’s Breakfast with Cliffo & Gabi on Thursday, and dropped a bombshell about the reality TV show ‘villain’ and his ‘wife’. 

He told the radio hosts, ‘the interesting thing that stands out with Bryce and Melissa is that it’s not a Man-Woman relationship, it’s a Father-Daughter relationship.’ 

Allan explained that their dynamic involves Bryce playing the protector role and Melissa playing the victim. 

‘So in some ways they are compatible, but it’s not a healthy relationship.’

He added that Bryce putting his arm around Melissa is not loving: ‘He just drapes his arm around her neck, that’s for the cameras, that’s not real.’

The body language expert also addressed the longstanding accusations that Bryce has been lying over his secret girlfriend on the outside. 

Allan said, ‘when people don’t tell the truth, the first thing that happens is you have an increase in blood pressure, so our extremities will go red – in his case, his ears go bright red whenever he’s on the ropes.’ 

‘I wouldn’t believe him at all.’

On Bryce writing LEAVE then STAY at the Commitment Ceremony, claiming it was all in Melissa’s best interests, Allan said, ‘this is Bryce as the protector, and she is playing the victim…. he’s manipulating the whole show.’ 

‘Bryce is a power controller – there’s no doubt about it.’ 

Meanwhile, it appears Melissa will finally stand up to her gaslighting husband during finale week.

A trailer for next week’s episodes hints that the workplace trainer, 31, will realise how Bryce has been manipulating her and quit the show.

The promo shows Melissa packing her bags and storming through the underground car park of the Skye Suites Sydney apartment complex where MAFS was filmed. 

She has a determined look on her face as she climbs into a taxi and is driven away.

In a rare act of defiance against her controlling spouse, she says: ‘I’m actually over it!’

Later in the trailer, Melissa tells the relationship experts at the last commitment ceremony: ‘We are a sinking ship at this point.’

Meanwhile, radio announcer Bryce, 31, looks stressed-out as he throws his hands up in despair during his counselling session.

Their falling-out could stem from the events of Wednesday’s episode, when co-star Alana Lister claimed Bryce had told her husband Jason Engler he would be ‘single’ by the end of the experiment because he wasn’t feeling a connection with Melissa.

While the trailer hints it’s the end of the road for the couple, Melissa and Bryce have confirmed they are in fact still together.

Evidently, they were able to move past whatever crisis they went through during the final weeks of the experiment, which was filmed late last year.

The couple did several interviews in Sydney on Wednesday, and finished off their day by attending an event hosted by Nova FM’s Fitzy and Wippa.

On Monday, a Change.org petition began circulating that demanded Channel Nine issue an apology for airing ‘triggering’ scenes involving Bryce and Melissa.

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.’

‘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.’

Meanwhile, Married At First Sight could be investigated by media watchdog ACMA after attracting 14 complaints this season, with four of those about Bryce and Melissa specifically.

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 a contentious issue 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.’

Married At First Sight continues Monday at 7:30pm on Channel Nine