Jackson Lonie and Olivia Frazer were poised to become Married At First Sight‘s next wholesome sweetheart couple, a la Jules and Cam. But after four blissful, drama-free weeks, the couple’s relationship started to show signs of serious strain.
Ever since seeing a “different side” to Olivia’s personality following her heated fallout with Domenica Calarco, Jackson has struggled to get back to a good place with his wife.
But despite their recent struggles, Jackson and Olivia’s relationship is going full steam ahead outside of the experiment, which wrapped up filming in November.
During an exclusive interview with Now To Love, Jackson inadvertently let it slip that he and Olivia are still together, saying: “To this day I go to the gym and she’s cool with it.”
But Jackson admits that Olivia’s self-confessed “bitchy side” did worry him during the course of the show.
“The snide comments definitely took me back because it was a different side to Liv that I haven’t seen, but you know, we’re not all prefect. We all have our own little flaws it was just something we have to work on and something we did work on,” he tells.
During hometown visits, Olivia was vocal about her dislike for the gym that Jackson called his happy place, but he takes the blame for her recent weight-side meltdown.
“It wasn’t that she wanted me to stop going, she just didn’t want to do it herself. It’s my thing it doesn’t have to be hers,” he says.
“Obviously I didn’t think about it in the way Liv was. She’s working out in front of a whole nation and the gym is something that scares her, so it was kind of on me for putting her in that situation.”
Jackson and Olivia’s tensions kicked off after the now-infamous glass smash,, but the MAFS groom reveals Olivia wasn’t the only bride claiming Domenica waved the broken glass’ stem around.
“It’s a very funny one because Liv wasn’t the only one that said there was a stem in her hand,” he claims.
“As soon as I heard that whole thing the first person I spoke to was Ella because she’s always neutral, and she says ‘oh look it was in her fingers maybe a bit too long, it wasn’t meant as a weapon but it was in there’.
“Every girl I spoke to that night said the same thing but once again that edit is an amazing thing.”
Jackson also vows that there’s more to the story of Olivia cutting up a friend’s “ugly” bridesmaid’s dress than “what’s being aired”.
“We spoke about it. It happened but it’s done and she just wanted to show that she is somebody that holds a grudge,” he says.
“Even though that’s not something I’m about, and she’s admitted its something she needs to work on and she is trying to.”
Despite starting as the golden couple, Jackson reveals he’s unhappy with the way his relationship with Olivia has been portrayed on the show in recent weeks.
“You watch it and you haven’t seen any of the lovely stuff we have done. I know it’s MAFS and [the producers] love drama but there’s a lot of feel good stuff there too that they haven’t shown and that’s the more upsetting thing,” he says.
“It’s kind of like they wanted to set this up from the start so poor Liv gets a reaming from everybody.”
The 30-year-old also argues that the producers have tried to paint Olivia in a negative light to create a more dramatic narrative.
“To be perfectly honest, I’m watching this show and its like I didn’t live it. It’s been fairly flipped around a lot,” he says.
“Liv has been trying [to improve] since the snide comments, I did pull her up on it and it hasn’t happened again. It’s a lot different in the real world you don’t have to be put into a room with someone you don’t like.
“It’s such a pressure cooker environment where there’s no escaping it, and it really does bring the worse side out. Liv is actually quite lovely and will go out of her way to help anybody, it’s more just don’t cross her kind of thing.”
As for where he stands with Domenica today, Jackson remains amicable, but there’s definitely no love lost between her and Olivia.
“I don’t hold grudges so I don’t have a problem with Dom. I’d say hello to her in the street but I wouldn’t catch up with her for coffee, she’s just not my kind of person,” he says.
“Liv and Dom would never even say hello to each other, they’d just cross the street and that’s fair enough as well.”
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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