When Ivan and Aleks quit Married At First Sight the day after an explosive dinner party, it looked as if it was all over between them.
But it wasn’t.
“The way it played out [on the show] was that we were separated,” Ivan, 30, tells TV WEEK.
“But actually, we spent the final night together.”
When the show wrapped up, Aleks returned to her family in Perth, while Ivan stayed in Sydney. But they spoke on the phone every day.
“After we left the show, we were good,” Ivan explains.
“We had a little bit of a break to reassess and re-establish things – and there was still a question from Aleks about romance etc – but we did pick things up further down the track. We missed what we had.”
Aleks and Ivan spent time in each other’s home towns.
Ivan got to know Aleks’ parents, who says they both welcomed him “with open arms.”
“They’re beautiful, beautiful people,” he enthuses.
“I think they were smart to not be involved in the show.”
Ivan explains that he and Aleks left the relationship experiment because they kept being asked about intimacy.
He says they both told the “so-called experts” right from the start that they weren’t going to discuss it.
“It was nobody’s business,” he says.
As well, Aleks felt “attacked” at the dinner party, but Ivan says there was no truth to the allegation she’d gone on a date with another man.
WATCH BELOW: Aleks and Ivan refuse to speak about intimacy. Post continues after video…
“She did attend an evening outing with Mishel, who exaggerates things, in my opinion,” he explains.
“There were a few dudes present who were a bit starstruck about the whole MAFS thing, but certainly nothing involving any attachment or physicality.”
By the time the reunion came along, Ivan and Aleks had had enough time to “cool down”. Ivan said by then, they’d acknowledged they had “something pretty bloody special.”
“We came back in a position of we were in love and were prepared to make things work for a future,” he explains.
Stacey and Mikey’s reunion bombshell
Rumours about a hook-up between Stacey and Mikey made news weeks ago. Now, in the reunion episodes of MAFS, it’s all about to blow up.
In the time between filming the final vows and the reunion, Stacey and her husband Michael remained close. When he moved from Adelaide to Melbourne, they kept up a long-distance relationship.
“She organised my son’s Christmas while I was away,” Michael, 28, tells TV WEEK. “She hung out with my mum. We were moving in. She cancelled her lease and it was all set to go.”
But on the night of the reunion dinner party, Michael hears the allegation that Stacey slept with Natasha’s husband Mikey.
Stacey, 25, insists that’s not true.
“Nothing happened between us,” she says. “I had coffee with him once. He asked to partner-swap with me. I said no. He said he wanted to kiss me and I was like, ‘Ugghhh.'”
Michael says he knew Stacey was texting Mikey, even before his drunken night with David’s wife Hayley.
“I was like, ‘It’s a bit weird you’re texting him,'” he recalls. “I didn’t want to come across like I was threatened by Mikey, so I played it down. I guess a big part of me didn’t want to know.”
As more is revealed at the dinner party, Michael becomes convinced Stacey has slept with Mikey.
“I knew, in the back of my head, it was true. This was someone I’d fallen in love with; someone I was dead-set going to live with after the show.”
Michael isn’t the only one who’s convinced there was a hook-up.
“It happened, all right?” Jonnie, 27, says. “I’m mates with Mikey. He’s not a guy who would be like, ‘Oh, I slept with that person’ if he didn’t.
But Stacey claims Mikey made up the story for “his extra 15 minutes of airtime” – and is disappointed by Michael.
“I did everything for him,” she says.
“I stood by his side even though everyone was telling me to leave him. I was nothing but a loyal partner, yet he had the audacity to judge me on one rumour.”
For more juicy Married At First Sight 2020 goss and scandals, check these links out below!
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