Married At First Sight‘s Ollie Skelton was forced to address a hilarious yet cooked moment on his poddy after it received a mixed response from fans.
Ollie is the latest MAFS alumn to hit the reality TV-to-podcast host pipeline with his new show TOSSER. While the show only launched earlier this week — with guest and fellow MAFS contestant Rupert Bugden — he’s already sparked a teeny weeny bit of drama that included MAFS bride Bronte Schofield.
On the first episode of TOSSER, Ollie asked Rupert if he thinks anyone on the show would fake a relo with him if he called them. Rupert said yes and then mentioned a bride’s name, which was bleeped out on the podcast.
Rupert called the unnamed bride, and yeah … this is where shit got a little bit shady.
“I was wondering, do you wanna set up a few pap shots and make it a thing for a month for the publicity?”, he asked.
The bride laughed and replied: “If you want to we can do that.”
She also joked that Rupert was “using her” for fame.
After the phone call ended, Rupert laughed and said, “Wow, turns out that I have a relationship”. Ollie said the prank call was “too easy” and he felt “bad” for the stunt.
Ugh, I feel bad just for listening to it. As we say here on PEDESTRIAN.TV: It’s an ick that’s truly icking.
Also, not to toot my own horn, but my ears are pretty good when it comes to pitches and edits. In the official episode, the whole conversation is edited to protect the bride’s identity, but for some reason in the social media videos it sounds like the first couple of seconds of the bride’s voice were left untouched — peep her saying, “Um, hello”.
Since the episode dropped, many people alleged that the anonymous bride was Bronte. Some folks also called out the podcast for the stunt.
One person wrote on the podcast’s IG: “So sad you’re doing this via the show and are screwing with women as well as the media for your own publicity”.
The podcast also made it onto Reddit, on the r/MAFS_AU forum, where one fan called out the boys for being “nasty”.
Ollie himself replied to the backlash via Reddit, claiming the stunt was “never specifically meant to target an individual”. He also mentioned that Rupert and himself spoke to Bronte and gave her a heads-up prior to the episode.
“Argh man, we didn’t want to out the person. It was kinda like a bit that was ‘Oh do you think we could get away with xyz.’ It was never specifically meant to target an individual but rather, ‘could Rupert get away with this.’ In saying that there’s obviously collateral that comes with that, and I think the criticism of that is fair,” Ollie wrote.
“Rupert and I talked with B prior and gave her the heads up that we would alter the voice and beep out the names but obviously, there’s a process of elimination when it comes to it. The irony of it all certainly is not lost on us when it comes to using the clip: ‘Because every D-grade influencer needs to be validated’ is in the bio of the podcast Instagram. Just a goof.”
As per The Wash, Bronte basically confirmed she was the anonymous bride and responded to the drama, posting, “I didn’t say I was going to be in a fake relationship or I would be okay with that”.
She also commented on Ollie’s IG post of the prank with a singular melting face emoji.
Under The Wash’s IG post, Bronte’s reality TV ex-hubby and Australia’s walking red flag Harrison Boon chucked in his two cents on the drama — giving us major Nasser Sultan vibes. IYKYK.
He wrote: “Fake Bronte being fake Bronte trying to pretend she’s not fake Bronte.”
Luckily fans called him out for his random AF comment.
Although the whole thing was a joke, and Ollie claimed that he did warn Bronte about the episode, I can’t help but feel bad for her.
I’m just glad that Ollie didn’t sweep it under the rug and actually took accountability for his actions. Definitely refreshing to see from a reality TV star.
Image Source: TikTok / @tosserpod & Instagram / @_bronteschofield
The post MAFS’ Ollie Apologises For Prank Where He Got Bronte To Agree To Start A Fake Relo For Clout appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
