Married At First Sight receives record amount of complaints

The seventh season of Married At First Sight Australia is on track to become the most complained about season of show.  

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has received a total of 54 official complaints so far. 

‘A significant proportion of the complaints alleged the program included personally abusive interchanges between participants through gaslighting, social, verbal and mental abuse and that the program perpetuated and promoted the theme of domestic abuse,’ an ACMA spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph in a statement. 

According to a report by The Wash on Monday, many viewers took offence at scenes involving controversial couple Melissa Rawson and Bryce Ruthven.

ACMA revealed it had at that time received 14 complaints about this year’s season of MAFS, and four of those were about Bryce and Melissa, both 31.

‘Under the co-regulatory system, the ACMA will refer complainants to the broadcaster in the first instance,’ the media watchdog said.

‘If the complainant does not receive a response from the broadcaster within 60 days, or is not satisfied with the response, they may refer their complaint to the ACMA who may choose to investigate.’

According to ACMA, many viewers raised ‘concerns over the scenes involving Melissa and Bryce’.

Additionally, a Change.org petition is demanding Channel Nine issue an apology for airing ‘triggering’ scenes involving the ‘gaslighting’ groom and his long-suffering wife. 

The petition, which has already received 2,500 signatures in under 24 hours and now has over 14,000, 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 DV 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 and or abusive 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.’    

It comes as former Married At First Sight star Michael Brunelli, 30, calls out the series for ‘gaslighting’ in a new interview. 

‘Gaslighting is horrible and we’ve seen first-hand what it does,’ Michael told Body and Soul magazine on Saturday. 

‘I hope that there is a woman or a man, anyone sitting at home watching that, thinking, “I can actually relate to this.”  

‘And it’s opening their eyes to see that maybe they’re being manipulated, maybe they can take a step back and see their relationship for what it really is and be able to learn from it’ he added. 

Michael starred on season six of the show, and is still in a relationship with his ‘wife’, Martha Kalifatidis, 32.