Viewers have watched in disbelief at Married at First Sight Australia ‘intruder’ bride Susie Bradley’s treatment of her new husband Billy Vincent.
From calling him “awkward,” to saying that he “needs to be a man,” and that he “needs to grow some balls,” Billy has copped a lot from the 25-year-old single mother.
“Susie has two faces,” Billy, 28, told TV WEEK. “There’s a side she shows other people in the experiment and there’s the side she shows to me. It was really confronting.”
Watch: Billy reveals the extent of Susie’s hurtful comments. Story continues after video.
Now, Susie has defended her actions, telling NW magazine that viewers aren’t getting the whole picture.
“Viewers are seeing about seven per cent of 100 per cent of mine and Billy’s time, and they are forming their opinions on that and that’s not enough to form an opinion on… so cut me some slack,” she insists.
“I’m not as bad as people think I am!”
While Susie is in damage control over her treatment of Billy, and fans comparing her to this season’s original villain, Ines Basic, a source close to the Brisbane nurse says that, behind the scenes, she’s suffering.
“The trolling and the constant bullying has really started to affect her, she’s not coping well,” the source tells.
According to the source, Susie is mortified to even be mentioned in the same breath as Ines, and was reportedly appalled by her fling with Sam Ball.
“Susie definitely just wants nothing more than to be a good mother,” the source told NW. “There’s more to her than what we’re seeing.”
Susie is mum to a three-year-old daughter called Baby. Susie and her childhood sweetheart split 18 months ago, and this is the first time she’s been single since she was 14.
“It’s taken me a while to find my feet as a single person!” she admits.
Susie has made no secret of the fact that she usually goes for bad boys, and dealing with someone who was as much of a gentleman as Billy is has been hard to adjust to, she tells Now to Love.
“But it wasn’t just the gentleman thing,” she explains. “When you’re so used to being on your own as an independent woman – like not having a dad for Baby as well – I’ve always had to do everything on my own and all of a sudden I’ve got this man trying to do everything for me and I found it all too much!”
For Billy, Susie’s treatment of him made him dig deep and really think about the type of man he wanted to be.
“I really had to ask myself, did I want to change myself to make my wife like me more?” he tells Now to Love. “Or did I want to just push forward and continue being myself until she kind of learnt to accept that there’s more than one way to convey masculinity and I was in it to look after her.
“I’ve got to be more of a male than any other male had been in her life.”