Chewed up and spat out – that’s how Sean Thomsen feels after a fiery five months with Tracey Jewel.
Leaning back in his chair, with arms stretched skywards, Sean draws a deep breath and smiles.
“I’m free and there are no dramas in my life any more,” he chirps, like a man holding a get-out-of-jail-free card.
“I can get fit, move to Melbourne and wake up each day knowing I’m not going to have an argument.”
It’s the break-up that everyone saw coming, except Sean and his Married At First Sight partner, Tracey Jewel, 35.
Tracey and Sean debuted their new romance at the Married at First Sight reunion episode.
Sean and Tracey, who were both matched with different partners in the recently wound-up Australian version of Married At First Sight, got together during a break from filming after the final commitment ceremonies, and debuted their new relationship at the show’s reunion episode.
However, despite talk of moving to Melbourne together, starting a family and starring in their own spin-off TV series, the couple’s relationship only lasted five months. Their plans were put on hold when Tracey suffered a breakdown as the show went to air. And then earlier this month Tracey told New Idea magazine that she’d “brutally” dumped Sean.
“If I think back, there were probably warning signs when the reunion episode went to air,” admits Sean, 35, a fly-in fly-out worker from Perth.
“Before filming the show, we made a pact to have each other’s backs. But I was blindsided when I found out she’d sent pictures of herself in lingerie to Dean [Wells], saying, ‘Do you think Sean will like me in this?’
“It made me furious. She said it was to make him jealous, but why would you want to make an ex jealous while you’re in a committed relationship?”
Tracey, who has an eight-year-old daughter, Grace, was fixated on getting married quickly and having more children with Sean, right up until the week they split.
“I wanted the same eventually,” says Sean, “But she wanted a ring immediately.”
Watch the video, below, for the jaw-dropping moment when Tracey and Sean announced their relationship with a passionate kiss at the MAFS reunion episode:
“Too many things weren’t adding up in our relationship and I developed trust issues.”
“We had too many issues to work through first and I knew we weren’t ready. Too many things weren’t adding up in our relationship and I developed trust issues.
“Issues like selling our break-up story to a magazine without consulting me. I woke up to that news and felt really betrayed. Who does that?
“I loved Tracey, but she became erratic and completely different to the girl I fell in love with. She’s got a book launch soon, but people can make their own minds up about whether she’s the best person to be dishing out advice for self-improvement.
“She seems to upset people wherever she goes, and it made me ask myself, ‘What am I missing? Who is this person I’m with?'”
Self-help author Tracey isn’t ruling out a reunion with her old flame Dean. It’s a move Sean fully supports, although Tracey may have missed the boat on that one, with recent reports showing Dean has moved on with someone new. .
“I’d love to read they’re together and have started a family,” laughs Sean, who plans to launch a book of his own – on the art of persuasion – next year.
“They’re so similar, and they deserve each other.”
