While the other grooms gushed about their partners’ green flags, viewers watched open-mouthed as “silver fox” Married at First Sight Australia groom Steve Powell, 50, rattled off an endless list of red flags about his bride Rebecca Zukowski – and one viewer was more shocked than most.
“I had absolutely no idea until I saw that episode,” shares Rebecca, 52, speaking to the Weekly before catching a flight.
“I was seeing it live with the nation as it unfolded on TV. It has been a hard watch. “I’m a strong, opinionated woman and I like to put myself out of my comfort zone, but I never thought it would be this hard.”
The vivacious leasing manager found herself emotional when she watched the first wedding episode with her son Austin, 19, and friends.
“I was crying and screaming at the screen,” she recalls.
“We had a beautiful wedding, exactly how it played out on TV. When I saw Steve, he sounded like a family man with no red flags. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”
Sadly, the good times ended there. Rebecca has left the experiment feeling battered, emotional and, above all, cheated out of finding her true match.
‘I dimmed my light for him.’
“Steve shouldn’t have been in that experiment. I don’t want to come across as bitter, I just feel so robbed. I’m disappointed he wasted my time. “He could have been a decent human and had some fun with it, but he wasn’t nice to me.”
Rebecca reveals that viewers don’t even see the worst of his treatment.
“As soon as we moved in together and I started to have a voice, he didn’t want to know me. He’d sit on the couch, read a book, having ‘time out’. No coffee dates, no conversation. I’ve never been more lonely in my life.”
Rebecca gets teary recalling how it affected her.
“I was dumbing myself down because I wanted him to like me, which sounds ridiculous. I want to apologise to all the women out there because I lost myself, dimmed my light, didn’t stand up for myself. In the outside world, I’d never let a man show disrespect like that, talking over me and down to me.”
Rebecca responds to public backlash
Rebecca becomes emotional discussing the public backlash after the dinner-party drama, in which she appeared to side with Gia Fleur and Brook Crompton as they attacked the other women.
“I’m getting a lot of hate – people saying at my age, I should know better. That’s hard to hear. Do I wish I’d been more assertive and stood up and left? One hundred percent. At one point, it looks like I’m laughing. I think I was just dumbfounded that this was happening. But at that stage, I wasn’t in a good state of mind. I felt supported by Gia, who had my back, while others said he was a nice guy.”
“Still, I should have stood up and said that’s enough. It was vile. At work, I’m surrounded by younger colleagues and they would say, ‘She’s the Mother Hen and looks after us.’ That’s who I am. I wish
I’d done something – that’s something I’ll have to live with.”
Having watched the show for 12 years, Rebecca thought it would be “a bit of fun”. Single for eight years, she waited until Austin finished school so she wouldn’t embarrass him, entering with his full blessing.
Looking forward after heartbreak
“It’s been tough for him to see what I went through,” she tells.
“He’s dark on it and can’t believe he shook Steve’s hand. And I’m so pleased my dad wasn’t there – he had an operation on the wedding day. I’d told production, ‘If you find someone 50 percent of the man my dad is, that would be a good start’ – and Steve was nowhere near.”
“It was a lot of work – seven months of casting, interviews, wardrobe, time off work. So for me, it wasn’t Steve’s rejection, it’s that I feel so robbed. I believed I was going to get my happy ever after. But I believe everything happens for a reason and I really hope it ends with me finding the man of my dreams – someone who makes me feel seen and safe.”
Rebecca says she wouldn’t do MAFS again, but she has another idea.
“I’d consider The Golden Bachelorette. Make me the Bachelorette, where I get to choose, not fight for a man!”
Married At First Sight Australia screens 7pm Sunday to Wednesday on Three. MAFS: After the Dinner Party screens 8.30pm Wednesdays on Three. Both stream on ThreeNow.
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