Selin and Anthony gave us hope that Married At First Sight‘s ninth season could produce a Jules and Cam-level couple, but it didn’t take long for their relationship to come crashing down.
At the alter, the 32-year-old single mother and 38-year-old single father hit it off from the very first moment they met.
“I must have died and gone to heaven,” Anthony said upon seeing his bride walking down the aisle. “I can’t take my eyes off her.”
“Seeing his kind eyes means everything, immediately I feel that spark,” Selin said.
The couple were instantly connected as they spoke during the wedding ceremony, discussing everything from his height – which Selin declared to be perfect – and the fact that they both have children.
Their family members even bonded throughout the evening, with Selin’s aunt chuffed by the match. Especially considering Selin had split from her ex-husband shortly after giving birth to her son Roman in 2019.
“I couldn’t sit there and play the role of a happy wife – because I wasn’t,” she said of her marriage, which ended when she was “betrayed in the worst way possible.”
But in a shock to MAFS fans, their seemingly perfect relationship came crashing down on their honeymoon, when Anthony playfully wiped clay on Selin’s face, prompting an argument.
The next day, Anthony apologised for swearing during their fight, but Selin doubled down on her anger towards her new husband.
Anthony claimed that Selin is a “completely different” person when the cameras aren’t rolling, adding that she mockingly called him a “princess”.
“‘The next time we get on camera, are you going to have a bit of a cry, have a bit of a boo hoo,'” he claimed she said. “After a while, me being a human being, you can only take so much.”
Selin then admitted to producers that she said things like: “Smile, princess,” but revealed Anthony called her “a bully”.
“The way he reacted, that’s definitely not how a man should act,” she said.
Their relationship then only went from bad to worse over the next three weeks, with Selin and Anthony regularly getting into heated fights at dinner parties in front of their shocked fellow couples.
It came as a surprise to literally no one that at the show’s third commitment ceremony, both Selin and Anthony decided to quit the show.
Selin defiantly wrote “I’m done!” on her stay or leave card, while Anthony said he was excited to go home and see his six-year-old daughter.
“I need that spark in my life, I need that flare, I need that excitement. I need to be able to connect with somebody and I’m just not feeling that,” Anthony said.
Speaking to TV WEEK on January 7, Selin claimed Anthony “went in and out of character quite frequently.”
“I felt like it wasn’t authentic. He wasn’t genuine. And I found it really hard to appreciate it because it didn’t feel real. Maybe I would have appreciated all the gestures if it was real,” she said, all but confirming the pair don’t last.
“It was very difficult for me to get to know him. I didn’t know which one he was. It wasn’t the gentleman that he painted himself to be, and I was okay with that. I’m not saying he’s a terrible person, but I just didn’t get the real him.”
Anthony told TV WEEK that it “felt like there was a brick wall” between himself and Selin, adding: “I’m not used to being shut down like that in relationships. You can’t hold a grudge. I wish she’d been a little bit nicer about it but that’s not Selin’s way. You can’t change how somebody is.”
Want more on Married At First Sight season nine? Check out the links below:
Is Married At First Sight real or fake? Let’s examine the evidence
Is Married At First Sight legal in Australia? Why the Marriage Act makes things complicated
How much do Married At First Sight contestants get paid in Australia?
The most shocking, hilarious and downright disturbing Married at First Sight bombshells