Married At First Sight Australia viewers were left floored after another dramatic instalment of the E4 series. Following an intense commitment ceremony, the experts got involved to allow one groom to quit, despite his wife wanting to stay in the experiment.
The Married At First Sight rules state that if one person wants to stay, the pair have to spend another week in the experiment. However, the rules were bent after emotional scenes during the episode that aired on Monday, March 27.
While Josh and his wife Melissa had a "strong connection" from day one, the pair admitted that intimacy week had been "messy and difficult" and they'd not had any luck resetting things. "I think because we are still talking about sex, it's really awkward," Melissa said, referring to their different outlooks on discussing their sex lives.
She explained: "Josh is really conservative and I respect that but it suppresses me and I feel like I'm the Alpha in the relationship, I'm the more dominant one and it's just showing."
Defending himself, Josh passionately said: "I cannot sit here and take this. It is untrue. And I will now speak my truth and talk about something that I actually think is at the heart of the issue. There is a significant issue in this relationship about control." Josh then claimed: "She has used degrading and dehumanising language to me, questioning my manhood. That is the core of the issue right there. And can I say, that if I was a woman saying these things, the group would feel very differently about this."
However, after Melissa told the experts the couple's intimacy had become "just sex" and "transactional," Josh was left in tears and told the panel he was feeling "overwhelmed" and "pretty broken. He then walked out of the commitment ceremony and was followed by his male cast members who tried to console him.
Upon his return, Melissa was apologetic, but it wasn't enough for Josh who said: "I'm leaving, I can't stay here anymore I want to go home and see my kids." However, that was thrown into question when Melissa said she wanted to stay, telling the room: "Josh is a nice, great guy so why would you not want to stay with him? He's really, really kind."
This prompted expert John Aitkin to say: "When we look at what you're saying to him, that he's not enough of a man for you. These are heavy, emotionally charged words you're throwing at him. Josh, we can see clearly that you are pretty broken right now, considering what we've seen tonight and what we've heard, I'm going to do something I've never done before."
He continued: "I've never seen a relationship like this before in the experiment, and we've been around long enough to know there's no coming back for you in this experiment and we are not going to subject you any longer to this. But this clearly is an option that you have to be offered, as you know if one person writes stay and the other person writes leave then that couple stays in the experiment for another week to see if they can turn it around. Melissa, you wrote stay but right now it's up to you Josh, what do you want to do from this point forward?"
"Thanks, I'd like to leave," Josh responded. Replying, John said: "So we are going to respect your request, Josh." The move signalled the end of the duo's journey on the E4 show.
Commenting, one fan wrote: "That was 100% the right decision from the experts to allow Josh to make the final decision!!" While another added: "I'm so glad they let Josh leave." And a third said: "I’m so glad they allowed Josh to leave and didn’t force him to stay. He was a broken man on that couch." For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.
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