It was billed as a world first for Married at First Sight – the introduction of two new couples part-way through the experiment.
Dr Trisha Stratford described it as “an experiment within the experiment.” It was designed to put the couples into real-life situations – being introduced to new people and real-world pressures to see how they’d handle it. But what about the so-called intruder couples? Have they been given enough time to really make a go of it?
If this week’s dinner party is anything to go by, one pairing might be over before it had a chance to get off the ground, with man-hungry Jessika Power immediately setting her sights on new groom Daniel Webb.
So what do these poor unsuspecting brides and grooms really think of their new partners? Was there an immediate spark? Are they someone they’d date in real life? Do they think it will last? The new hopefuls reveal all.
Billy and Susie
Susie, who usually goes for bad boys, was taken aback when she met her new groom.
“I did not expect to get what I would have chosen for myself, I accepted that from the beginning. So I was really hoping I’d get more of a man, more of a gentleman. And that’s exactly what I got!” the 25-year-old single mother told TV WEEK.
“As soon as I saw how he was dressed, how he held himself, I knew he was a gentleman.”
There was no denying Billy’s attraction to his new bride.
“My first impressions of Susie were, ‘This girl is absolutely stunning. I’ve really hit the jackpot.’ And you see that on the show, I just couldn’t contain how I felt in that moment,” Billy, 28, told TV WEEK.
“I was so nervous – I was deciding whether to throw up or to faint. I was smitten, I couldn’t stop looking at her. I was such a schoolboy. I just thought, I really want to get to know this girl.”
Susie admits she found it difficult to accept Billy’s kindhearted characteristics.
“I found it really hard at first to take his compliments and have someone pull my chair out for me,” she revealed. “I wasn’t used to it.”
Watch: Billy and Susie meet at the altar. Story continues below.
They’ve faced a few ups and downs since that day, with Susie directing a few choice words her husband’s way, saying “He’s awkward. He needs to be a man. He needs to grow some balls.”
But things heat up in an upcoming episode, when Susie gets to feast her eyes on the nude charity calendar Billy modelled for.
It remains to be seen whether or not that’s changed her opinion of him.
Dan and Tamara
35-year-old single father Daniel Webb admits he was nervous on the day of the wedding.
“Yeah. I was shaking and had sweaty palms. It was overwhelming,” he told TV WEEK. “Meeting my future wife on that day, I didn’t know what to expect; it was a challenge. I’m the kind of a guy that knows if I’m going to have something with a girl within 60 seconds, just by the feeling I get. That’s what I was chasing and why I went on the show.”
Unfortunately, Dan admits he didn’t get that ’60 second feeling’ when he met his bride.
“No, I didn’t quite get that on the wedding day when I saw Tam, but I stayed true to myself and I stuck with it and got to know her more,” he reveals. “The nerves settled once we were at the reception and she was fine with me having a son.
Watch: Dan and Tamara meet at the altar. Story continues below.
“Tam was pretty loud on the wedding day; she’s a bit overpowering for me,” Dan continued. “It toned down as time went on but I was taken back by her big personality. I’m not used to it and I struggled with it.
“Shes a pretty girl and has everything going for her, but we didn’t see eye-to-eye on a few things. Look, if she walked into a bar, she wouldn’t be the type of girl I would go and speak to. But in saying that, I was keen to find out the depth of her and find out why the experts matched her with us. I was interested to find that out.”
29-year-old Tamara, on the other hand, was dazzled by her new husband’s pearly whites.
“Honestly, it’s hard to remember but the thing that keeps popping up, is ‘wow he has really white teeth!'” she laughs.
Sparkling teeth aside, Tamara thought husband came across like “a bit of a lad.”
Tamara is yet to find out that her new husband is facing criminal charges relating to a multi-million dollar fraud, a revelation that could very well put a spanner in the works when it comes to the future of their relationship.
