Their marriage started out beautifully, with an instant connection and easy warmth that saw many viewers touting them as the couple on the show to watch.
But the romance of Married At First Sight Australia’s Cathy Evans and Josh Philak has just as quickly chilled, and now viewers are simply waiting for it to be over onscreen in New Zealand.
In recent episodes we have witnessed the once-happy couple fail to see eye-to-eye again and again.
Show expert John Aiken has explained their disconnect as both falling into the same old habits that have not worked for them in previous relationships. While Josh tends to speak before he thinks when he’s fired up, Cathy retreats and withdraws.
When Cathy, who has been cheated on in past relationships, felt threatened by Hayley being “all over Josh” at a dinner party, Josh was less than sympathetic. Then when it came time to share a meal with the couple’s family and friends Josh threw Cathy under the bus, telling his mum Mandy that his wife had ignored him for three days.
“Don’t ever ignore my son again,” Mandy told Cathy, and that put her in the firing line for death threats on social media according to Josh, who has spoken out about the way he and his family have been edited on the show.
The once-happy Josh and Cathy now struggle to hold a conversation without arguing.
Josh and his mum, who are extremely close, again brought up the ‘ignoring for three days incident’ during the grooms’ home visit week and Cathy called it when she said, “It feels like we’re going round and round and round in circles, and there’s no moving forward.”
“Maybe we’re better as friends,” Josh responded.
While their inevitable break-up is yet to air on NZ screens Josh has admitted to TV WEEK that he could have played his cards differently.
“Look, I definitely made some mistakes along the way,” he said.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said some things to my mum. But mate, I’m only human.”
“The show has made me look at a lot of things that I need to work on and I’m still continuing to work on them because I do want to be a good partner for whoever I end up with.”
Josh says he had “such a great connection” with Cathy at the start, and watching his wedding again on the show was “beautiful.”
“I messaged her straight after the wedding,” he reveals.
“I said, ‘How nice is this to look back on?’ and I got nothing from her… I had some great memories with her, some that I’ll remember forever.”
He has said he would like to remain friends with Cathy, but Cathy, who is in New Zealand promoting the show at the moment, has opened up to Woman’s Day to say that’s not for her.
“I told him, ‘We can be acquaintances and I can be civil, but just calling each other? Nah… I want to forget about you.’
“He wasn’t happy about that , but I’m like well, I’m sorry but that how it works for me!”
So what’s next for Cathy and Josh?
Well, the immediate future for Cathy involves self-isolation. The logistics investigator will need to self-isolate for 14 days when she returns to Australia in accordance with the government’s new rules on international arrivals.
She told Hit FM’s Sam & Rach For Breakfast that she will binge-watch her favourite Netflix shows while in quarantine.
“I’ve been [in New Zealand] for the last week, catching up with friends and family. It just started to become a bigger deal while I’m here,” Cathy said.
She also plans to put more energy into the work she does as a freelance make-up artist on Youtube.
Josh, meanwhile, is planning to use his expanded Instagram following to get involved with charity work – in particular, anything to do with motor neurone disease.
“I had a cousin who was only 33 who passed away last March from motor neurone disease. He had a young family. So that’s something that I want to definitely help out, for sure,” says Josh.
