Anthony Cincotta and Selin Mengu’s romance started as Married At First Sight‘s next Jules and Cam, but within days, their relationship soon became reminiscent of the worst matched couples we’ve ever seen.
In an exclusive chat with Now To Love, single father and instant fan favourite Anthony opens up on which brides he would have been better suited to, how Selin acted when cameras weren’t rolling, and the groom he’s now happy to call one of his best mates.
Anthony sheds light on his honeymoon, where Selin continually rebuffed his romantic gestures, causing a rift between their relationship that came to a head in a heated argument.
“It was weird because id be doing all these romantic gestures and every time they’d get shot down or refuted or she would say ‘I don’t need you to do that’,” Anthony says.
“I wouldn’t get any acknowledgement so eventually I stopped because I was like clearly this isn’t working and I feel uncomfortable doing it.
“And as I stopped that’s when she started bringing up the fact I stopped doing it saying ‘you’re supposed to be a gentleman’.”
The couple’s relationship was hanging on by a thread by the time the first dinner party came around, where Selin and Anthony showed up alone.
“Going into the dinner party, I didn’t realise we’d be going in separate until that day. It was probably one of the loneliest experiences of my entire life, it wasn’t fun,” he admits.
“Selin was having a good time, she was smiling away I was anything but happy.”
Anthony says he felt blindsided by Selin’s decision to reveal to her fellow wives that Anthony had left the honeymoon a day early: “I kind of felt like it did break the trust a little bit it was hard to come back from that.”
“I like to think the best of people and I like to think we can be amicable. For me the thing was, marriages are always built on trust she said in her vows she was looking for a teammate. I always felt if we’re gong off the trust and teammate thing we should have each others’ back,” he says.
Despite Tamara and Domenica firmly confronting Anthony about leaving the honeymoon early, the single dad says he was grateful Jackson had his back.
“Jackson really stood up for me that night and I’ll never forget it. He was such a sweetheart and a beacon of light,” he says warmly.
“Since it’s aired a lot of the guys have reached out to me to see how I’m doing and just to say they knew it was bad but didn’t now how bad until afterwards.”
Anthony goes on to reveal that the Selin he was married to wasn’t the same Selin that other people got to know, but says he doesn’t want to “throw her under the bus”.
“We’d sit around with the crew and she’d be super charming and I’d go to talk to her and it would be a brick wall,” he says.
“There were times I’d be telling her stories about my family or daughter and she’d just lose interest and walk off, but I don’t really want to get into what was and wasn’t shown.
“I kind of feel what has been shown has been a pretty accurate representation of what happened.”
Anthony’s hesitant to reveal which bride he would have been better paired with, but does reveal who would have appreciated certain sides of his personality.
“Hypothetically, the romantic gestures would have worked better with someone like Selina. The emotional maturity would have worked better with Sam,” he admits.
“When you’re in the house you don’t think about that stuff, you keep on keeping on.”
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