Zoe Clifton and Jenna Robinson were Married At First Sight UK's first lesbian couple - and they're now the only pair to have survived the 2022 series. Since the filming came to a close, the two have had a chance to act like a 'normal' couple and despite having opposite work schedules and living in two different parts of the country, are managing to see each other every week.
They've come a long way in their relationship and whilst veganism was at the centre of their confrontation, Zoe has now decided to give up cow's milk in her coffee, taking a leaf out of her vegan girlfriend Jenna's book. But she still has hold of her prized pickled rat, Mr Pickles.
Unlike other couples from the hit E4 experiment, the pair have managed to work out how their separate lives can piece together, and even had a mutual agreement on when to watch back episodes. Zoe, 30, who works as a quantity surveyor in Stafford, heads up north to Blackpool each weekend to spend time with Jenna, 32, on Saturday and Sunday evenings as she works during the daytime in her zero-waste store.
Jenna will then head back down to the Midlands for a couple of days with Zoe as she starts her 9-5 on Monday.
After 'tying the knot' in April when they first saw each other, they spent the consecutive weeks filming for the show, where they sought advice from the experts and lived in an apartment block together with the other contestants until June.
The months until the series aired allowed them to go on dates like regular couples, and in a way, start from the beginning after previously skipping straight to marriage.
"When the experiment ended it was time to just be a normal couple and go on dates. We'd got kind of got used to that, then it all kind of blew up again when the show aired," Zoe told The Mirror.
"We're really thankful that we've got each other throughout this whole process."
Jenna explains that they watched all the episodes back, and some they chose to watch together.
A welfare team member from the production would let them know what to expect with each one so they could be prepared.
"We had to go through the rigmarole of having to rewatch all of our petty little arguments," she said.
"But we did very well. I think we managed to get by watching all of the season without having like another argument."
Zoe added: "We made a very conscious effort to watch the first few episodes together, the wedding, or if there was a particularly difficult episode where we knew arguments were going to come up.
"And we had an agreement in place that we would watch whatever we needed to watch and then say, 'right it's behind us. We moved on. We squash that argument.'"
Their polar opposite views on eating meat cropped up on a number of occasions, but Zoe argues it was blown out of proportion during the show.
For their sixth-month anniversary, she took Jenna to a vegan restaurant and will now always check restaurant menus before booking a table so she knows Jenna has plenty of options.
"It's just making a bit of a conscious effort to make it work," she explained.
"But I think it wasn't as much of a deal big deal as what it was, it was pushed a little bit because we were getting on so well.
"It was something that was spoken about quite a lot because it was our biggest problem."
Jenna assures she hasn't dictated what her girlfriend can eat, and as she addresses Zoe directly, adding: "I think it's been off your own back - we don't really discuss it so it was done on her own accord.
"I have had some influence but I just think it's the fact that now she's thinking about things more."
The couple is still in touch with most of the show's contestants and say they're still friends with most of them.
But in recent days, Thomas has been forced to apologise for making an offensive joke during the What's Happenin' podcast about Jenna's late father.
Speaking before the incident took place, Jenna said: "We're friends with most people aren't we?" with Zoe adding: "The only two we don't talk to are Matt and Whitney.
"We've kept in contact with most of the people since the show, especially with the people on the other side of the table since the last dinner party.
"It was a bit split - our side is very close."
Although they're not looking to move in together just yet, it's definitely something they'd like to do in the future.
As MAFS filming began, Zoe had sold her apartment and is now in the process of moving into a house - a space where Jenna can bring her dogs along with her.
Jenna confirmed: "I think it'll be a little bit of time before we ended up moving in together especially now that she's got her own little house that she'll want to stay in for a while."
Zoe joked that Jenna has her doing jobs around the house when she visits, but Jenna claims they split the chores 50/50.
It's something they feel passionately about as a same-sex couple as statistics show 39 per cent of cohabiting couples say most of their arguments arise from a cleaning or household chore disagreement, and with the majority of women (54 per cent) still doing the lion's share of the housework.
Last week the pair attended an event alongside their co-stars Thomas and Adrian, hosted by cleaning brand Method, where they signed a 'Clean Up Pre-nup' - an initiative launched to bring peace and harmony to the chore wars.
Jenna argued: "Because we're in a lesbian relationship, we're going to have the tiniest, cleanest house ever and it probably will be a 50/50 split with housework.
"But statistics show that it is still the majority of women that do house and that needs to change. So this is this was their [Method's] way of trying to encourage that."
While it's known that Jenna hates the traditional concept of marriage, the couple envisions a 'proper' marriage eventually down the line after they decide to move in together.
"I definitely would like a proper marriage in the future," Zoe stated.
"We're now back dating as girlfriend and girlfriend then after moving in, those things would naturally fall into place after," Jenna interjected.
Zoe continued: "You're thrown into this experiment, and it's wild. There are so many parts of it that are incredibly intense.
"There's an element of when you come away from the experiment that you kind of have to say 'but now let's kind of forget that happened and start again.'
"You have to build a relationship based on both of your separate lives, and you have to always work together.
"Our personalities get on and we are both attracted to each other and all those things work but you know, you have to work out whether or not your outside lives can work.
"A lot of the reason why some of the other relationships broke down is that you kind of underestimate how difficult it can be when you own lives and you've got this person that you've got to introduce into your life I guess."
Jenna added: "I think if you want it enough, you'll make the effort."
Jenna Robinson & Zoe Clifton joined cleaning brand method and Rob Rinder to celebrate the launch of the UK’s first ‘Clean Up Pre-nup’ - an agreement for change designed to bring peace and harmony to the chore wars once and for all. More information can be found here
