When Married At First Sight dream couple Sarah Roza and Telv Williams ended their on-screen marriage on March 24 with an emotional Instagram statement, everyone was heartbroken.
But no-one more so than groom Telv, who was immediately painted as a villain in the aftermath.
The hunky MAFS star, 33, has been accused of abandoning Sarah to party, taking her money and dumping her on Valentine’s Day.
Oh, and also body shaming his ex-wifey for reportedly being “too fat”.
Hitting back at the claims, Telv breaks his silence for the first time since the split during a heartfelt chat with NW.
“I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I put it all out there and really tried to make the marriage work,” Telv tells us exclusively. “I would never belittle anyone over their weight – especially a woman. Sarah isn’t even fat… I’m the chubby one! I’d never do that.”
Responding to claims he “borrowed money he never paid back” from Sarah while apparently treating her home like a hotel, Telv rages, “It’s all lies! I have a job that pays quite well and I don’t need to borrow money off anybody.”
Although their relationship played out like a fairytale on-screen, NW‘s show insider reveals that over New Year’s it all started to fall apart.
“Sarah and Telv actually broke up several times throughout filming, but show bosses begged them to put on a united front,” our source tells us.
“Sarah told producers she was upset when Telv went to the gym and felt abandoned – and there was a big disagreement about how much time they should be spending together. Telv realised enough was enough when she said to him, ‘I want you to love me as much as you love your children. I want to be on the same level.’ That was a massive red flag for Telv.”
Tempers reached boiling point, though, just before filming the reunion episodes and producers called them in for an emergency three-hour counselling session after they discovered Sarah dumped Telv via a long text message while he was out with friends.
And the therapy seemed to be a success as the pair patched things up and spent five days at Sarah’s home together in Melbourne to see if they could make things work without the pressures of a camera crew surrounding them.
Relive Sarah and Telv in happier times. Post continues after the video…
Things quickly turned sour between the pair, though, when Sarah, 38, apparently “flipped out” at her TV husband after he questioned her intentions for being on the show.
“Sarah would often talk about how they could stay in the spotlight and make money off their appearance on the show, and started screaming at Telv when he brought this up. She was upset and threw his clothes out of her house and told him that was it,” the insider shockingly alleges.
“She literally dragged his suitcase out the door and threw it onto the footpath for everyone to see – he was mortified!”
According to NW‘s source, the pair broke up “four to five times” before the show even went to air, and the source claims the amount of daily phone calls became overwhelming.
“She broke up with him, then wanted to get back with him – she was trying and trying,” says the source.
“But Telv had seen a side of her that he didn’t like and it was just so hard to come back from.”
Sob!