Images: Nine
He may be one of the oldest grooms to enter the Married At First Sight Australia, but Richard, 62, won’t let age hold him back. For the 2024 season, he has been paired with free-spirit Andrea, 51.
Unlucky on the dating apps, Richard would alter his age, feeling that no one wanted to date someone over the age of 60. He has turned to the MAFS relationship experts for help in finding his life partner.
Richard is looking for someone with a fun, loving spirit who he will certainly find in his MAFS pairing, Andrea.
Prior to the experiment, Andrea was in a relationship when she discovered the meaning of ‘gaslighting’ from a previous season of MAFS and was “being gaslit.” She then ended the relationship.
“Because MAFS broke up my relationship, I feel that they should find me a new man,” she laughed.
Richard wow’d the wedding guests when he rode into the ceremony on his motorbike. To which, Andrea also has a motorbike license!
For Richard, his greatest fear was seeing the disappointment on his bride’s face when she saw him – but all those fears washed away as Andrea walked down the aisle. As the two locked eyes, their connection was instant.
“There’s like a sparkle,” Richard confessed to his daughter, unable to wipe the smile off his face.
The MAFS pairing weren’t the only ones overjoyed by their chemistry, but also their adult children who gave their stamp of approval.
Andrea and Richard continued to bask in their marital bliss throughout the honeymoon with non-stop kisses, bonding over their similarities and overall being silly together.
However, Confessions Week proved more challenging for the couple. Fear rooted within Andrea after being tasked with looking through the other’s phone.
“I choose to go into any relationship trusting, even though I’ve been hurt time and time again,” Andrea told the crew, just moments before Richard opened his last conversation – with his ex.
“She called me yesterday, but I can’t remember, we spoke about something,” he began. “I said, ‘bye sweetie,’ she text me and said ‘did you call me sweetie? Don’t do that, don’t disrespect your woman. I’m your ex man, don’t assume she’s fine, don’t get loose’.”
But Andrea’s awe of her new husband and his ex-partner faded after the photo challenge where Richard ranked her third among the other brides in the experiment. Upset by the result, she admitted: “I don’t know how to come back from that.”
Meanwhile, Richard was unaware of the emotional pain he had just caused.
“She was completely fine with that,” he told the crew. “She could have taken it the wrong way but she didn’t. In fact, she was quite flattered to be ranked third with some of the other girls.”
The following day, Andrea confessed she wasn’t “feeling super sparkly” as a result of Richard’s decisions.
“I didn’t realise that I have upset her. It makes me feel like a right piece of s–t, to be honest with you. I f—d up. And we’ve got so much going for us, so I need to fix it,” Richard told the crew.
It seemed he certainly made it up to Andrea, as the pair were bubbly at the first Commitment Ceremony of 2024. Richard admitted his feelings with his new wife were reminiscent of his 20s.
But what he had to say next truly made Andrea blush.
When asked by the experts how their physical relationship with progressing, Andrea said: “Intimacy came naturally and beautifully, and it’s very nice -“
“It’s full on. Two to four times a day,” Richard confessed.
While everyone was madly giggling at the admission, Andrea later felt betrayed by it.
“The way Richie talked about us and the words he used, I think that really affected me emotionally,” she said during the following week’s commitment ceremony, in which Richard responded: “She’s got a wall and it’s not the same. We’ve lost what we had and I’m a bit gutted about that to be honest. For me, sort of unrequited love.”
It was unusual territory for the pair going forward considering it was all passion in the beginning. The pair had their first fight during Family and Friend’s Week “over something stupid” according to Andrea.
“It’s really annoyed him that I’ve gone and had a conversation with my three best friends on the phone last night,” she said.
Richard claimed the phone call lasted more than two hours, but that wasn’t his biggest issue: “It doesn’t seem to me that your trying. Are we right back to zero again?”
Feeling the whole issue was ‘dramatised’, nothing was resolved before Andrea’s best friend and Richard’s daughter arrived. Breaking down into tears, Richard confessed: “From my point of view Andy’s not into me at all any more.”
Thankfully, one of the sweetest couples in the MAFS 2024 experiment was saved by Andrea’s best friend who shed some light on Andy’s defensive mechanisms. But with Family and Friends Week coming to an end, they can’t rely on others to help.
