Amanda has made history as one of Married At First Sight‘s first gay brides. But her participation has come at a cost.
“Since filming of Married At First Sight ended, some incidents have occurred and I’ve chosen to walk away from my immediate family,” Amanda, 34, tells TV WEEK.
“I’ve chosen to walk away from my immediate family,” Amanda, 34, tells TV WEEK.
(Image: Nine Network)On the show, there’s drama as to whether Amanda’s family will support her “marriage” to a woman she’s never met before. She says that, off camera, there was more going on.
“I think my dad was very fearful of losing his job over it,” she says.
“I think he thought, ‘Do you really need to do this, Amanda? Because it’s going to affect me more than it’s going to affect you.’
“I said, ‘Look, first of all, you should support your daughter no matter what.’ I was so insulted. This whole MAFS thing was the beginning of the end to what I needed to sever in my life.”
Amanda and her mum in happier times.
(Image: Instagram @amanda.m.micallef)The Melbourne strength coach says she applied for the show the same day she split with her most recent partner. Their relationship had started promisingly.
“I was in love with her,” Amanda remembers. “I wanted to marry the girl.”
But things changed. Amanda says she found her former partner’s behaviour “very confusing”.
“I did cheat on my ex,” she admits. “Good people do s**t things in the heat of the moment. The intimacy wasn’t there, so I went elsewhere for it. And that was that. Do I regret it? Yes.”
Amanda went through the audition process for MAFS, but didn’t hear anything for a while. She and her ex started talking again. Then came the call to say she’d been chosen for the show.
At first, Amanda knocked it back.
“I said, ‘Look, I’m actually going to work things out with my ex.’ And then, in 24 hours, I said, ‘Amanda, you need to do this crazy thing that could open up so many doors for you.’
“I had to really break her heart, but I also had friends tell me, ‘She’s a great girl, but you’re just not right for each other.'”
Will Amanda be matched with a woman who’s right for her on MAFS?
Amanda with two of the MAFS grooms Steve and David.
(Image: Instagram @amanda.m.micallef)Mikey’s Ninja Warrior girlfriend
Back in 2017, Mikey was watching his girlfriend Katie Williams compete on Australian Ninja Warrior.
The couple have since split, and now Mikey’s the one appearing on TV – on MAFS. He says Katie had something to say about it.
“When she found out, she actually came to my house and knocked on my door,” Mikey, 29, tells TV WEEK. “She was just in shock, really. She was like, ‘I can’t believe you’d go and do this.'”
Mikey met Katie – a beach-sprinting champion and podcaster – when they were teens. Back then, they appeared in an ad, playing brother and sister.
“I was like, ‘That chick’s pretty cool,” he remembers.
Mikey and Katie had a good relationship but drifted apart.
(Image: Instagram @katiewilliams)Years later, Mikey reached out to her on Instagram.
“I chased her for a while and then we finally had a date,” Mikey explains.
Mikey is also heavily into fitness, going to the gym at least six or seven times a week, so he and Katie had a lot in common.
“We’re very competitive,” he says. “We had a very good relationship.”
Mikey supported Katie when she appeared in the first season of Australian Ninja Warrior.
“She was very excited about that,” he says.
Mikey said he and Katie eventually drifted apart, and explains that, at the time, he was going through a career change and “probably wasn’t happy with my life”.
“I could have dealt with it a lot better,” he says. “I should have been more open.”
Mikey now helps run a Sydney nursing home owned by his family. Can he make his relationship last this time around?
Will Mikey find love this season?
(Image: Nine Network)Cathy had no idea her partner cheated
No-one could blame Cathy for having trust issues going into MAFS. A past relationship was with a guy she met on Tinder, who she dated for more than a year and thought she would marry.
“The last two months of our relationship was essentially a lie,” she explains. “He was cheating on me while distracting me with jewellery stores, asking which ring I liked best because he was going to marry me.”
“It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” Cathy says of her breast-enhancement surgery.
(Image: Instagram @summertanx)Cathy, 26, says the “gut-wrenching heartbreak” left her severely depressed.
“I learnt that no matter how well I treated my partner, it doesn’t mean they’ll treat you the same,” she says.
The Sydney logistics investigator is open about having had breast-enhancement surgery.
“It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” Cathy says. “I felt so confident afterwards.”
