Dino Hira is not your typical Married at First Sight participant.
In fact, out of the five seasons that have come before him, there has been no groom, or bride for that matter, quite like him.
The 34-year-old meditation coach takes good care of both his “mind and body” and is a “voice of reason”, something that the experts thought would pair him well with the rambunctious Melissa Lucarelli.
But the Hong Kong-born reality star wasn’t always this way.
In fact, it took a very serious break-up for him to change his lifestyle, overhauling his profession from stripper to an enlightened master of the universe.
Dino is now a meditation coach.
In an exclusive interview, Now to Love sat down with one of the people who know him best – Dino’s ex-fiancée, Michelle.
Michelle and Dino met in 2010 after the pair started chatting on Facebook thanks to a mutual friend.
“When I first met him, he was just really sweet,” Michelle revealed. “Completely different to what I’d imagined in my head, from the photos I saw of him on Facebook.”
“He was not the person I thought he was. I thought he was going to be a player, a party boy – but when I actually sat down with him and spoke to him, I was so surprised. He wasn’t like that at all, if anything he was a little bit awkward!”
Dino and Michelle during their relationship. (Source: Supplied)
When Michelle met Dino, he was a stripper in Perth but after a few weeks of dating, Dino decided that he wanted [to give up that life to “make things serious”.
“And that was it,” she said. “He gave it up.”
The pair dated for two years before he proposed – and even flew Michelle to Hong Kong to meet his parents.
While it seemed their relationship was to go the distance, Dino and Michelle split after three years together.
Dino gave up stripping for Michelle. (Source: Supplied)
“If you had asked me a few years ago, I probably would have loved to tell you,” Michelle admitted when asked why their relationship ended. “But, because we’re friends now, I won’t say too much, but I broke up with him.
“He did do something, but he was a completely different person to what he is now,” she said. “He’s always had a kind heart and I know that he is deeply sorry. He really is a good person.”
After their break-up, Dino went through a “bad patch”, however, Michelle believed that it was this time that sent him on the path to enlightenment.
During their relationship, she had given him a copy of the book, The Secret, and it was only after their split that he read it, thus inspiring his journey to enlightenment.
Dino and Michelle have become good friends again. (Source: Supplied)
Now Michelle is a mum-of-two and she and Dino have become good friends again.
So what does she think of Dino going on the show?
“I was a bit worried that things from his past would come up,” she said.
“When we spoke about it, he just took it in his stride and said, ‘whatever people say about me, is not going to affect me.'”
“I know that a lot of people will say that he’s there for the fame, which I’m sure for every one of them, there’s that aspect, but I do honestly think that he wants to settle down and that he’s always wanted that.”
Dino and new bride Melissa on their wedding day.
This is not Dino’s first foray into reality TV. In 2018, he was previously seen looking for a date on reality series First Dates.
During his stint on First Dates, Dino tried hard to show his date all of these different elements that make up his life… including the trophy for taking out the title of ‘Mr Australasia.’
So while Michelle and his “first date” were not meant to be, could Melissa be his true love?
We’ll just have to wait and see.
