Mishel Karen is no stranger to blasting Nine Network and Married At First Sight producers. However, her latest attack is unlike anything we’ve seen or heard before.
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In an explosive interview with The Daily Telegraph, the mum unleashed on the show that made her a household name, claiming she “didn’t have any human rights” while filming last year.
“We were sleep-deprived, we had everything we owned taken from us, we were spoken to like pieces of sh*t,” she told the outlet.
To make matters worse, Mishel said the warehouse they used for filming was “teeming with cockroaches”, the cast was “rarely fed” and she wasn’t allowed water at the dinner parties. She even recalled being forced to wait for ice in her glass to melt so she could rehydrate.
Joining a long list of MAFS stars who have opened up about being forced to remain in the experiment, the police worker said the show’s manipulative producers made her write “stay” during commitment ceremonies, despite wanting to leave her 52-year-old husband, Steve Burley.
“I was saying I want to go home, I don’t think anything is going to happen with this person ever,” Mishel said, referring to her relationship with the barbershop owner.
“But I was forced to stay. At one commitment ceremony production was held up for eight hours because I wouldn’t write ‘stay’. I was saying, ‘no, I’m not going to,’ so eight hours we were delayed.”
This isn’t the first time she’s opened up about the toxic nature of the reality series. Last month, the unlucky-in-love star said she, along with many of her female co-stars, were forced to pay for absolutely everything and were shunned by bosses if they tried to wear the same outfit more than once.
“The thing is if you’ve got a property or home loans then you still have to pay that and you’re not getting paid from work,” she said.
“I had the injury on the snowfield, so I tore my meniscus and had to have surgery and all up I’m in debt about $38,000,” she admitted. “It’s massive. I’m a single mum, I’ve paid for my kids to grow up, private school fees, this is a big dint. And everyone thinks you get all these freebies. Do we? Wow, we got free water, giddy up.”
“I told producers that I was leaving and that there was nothing they could do about it,” he told the outlet. “They had already lost so many contestants so that’s when they said to me, ‘What can we do to make you stay?'”
As a result, they offered him a top-secret deal— stay in the experiment and they’d let him fly home to see his father who had suffered a stroke while filming was underway.
Sadly, Connie was also battling it out with MAFS showrunners, with an insider telling New Idea she was pressured into writing “stay” during multiple commitment ceremonies.
“[Two producers] pulled Connie aside for over two hours and they made her rewrite what she had written on her card,” the source dished.
“They stood over her and put pressure on her to write ‘stay’ instead of ‘leave’. Connie came out and she had been crying. It was a very harrowing situation for her and filming was delayed for 2.5 hours that night because of it all.”
This article was originally published on WHO
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