Married At First Sight Australia 2023 has premiered its power couple of the season, but can Layton and Melinda put aside their ambition to focus on love during the experiment?
These two have certainly put love on the back burner and focusing on the ‘hustle’ of building a successful career. While Layton and Melinda match perfectly on paper as they both enjoy their lavish and hard earnt lifestyle, but something tells us that isn’t enough.
After being single for four years, Melinda fears she may have “missed the boat” when it comes to finding true love. But in the face of a potential match, she responded with a lack of trust and suspicion.
It was an incredibly awkward first meeting for the pair, and Melinda later revealed her new hubby wasn’t her normal type and began to spot red flags! Even believing his kindness was “a façade.”
“First impressions… he may be punching just a little. I would swipe left. I’m a 9 and a half… on a bad day. My usual type is more… tall dark, handsome, European, chiseled,” she said.
“From what I’ve seen for far, this is not worth my time.”
Meanwhile, Layton appeared to be smitten with his new bride as he revealed he found Melinda “very attractive,” he even tried to slip in some tongue during their photoshoot!
While Melinda spent most of her wedding day being suspicious of her new husband, she eventually realised it was misguided following his heartfelt reception speech.
“To put my heart in the hand of the experts its scary. But I’ve got to trust the process, and see the potential of me and Layton,” she said.
“Everyone loves this guy, what have I missed?”
Their first night together was anything but romantic! Melinda began laying down the ground rules of sharing a bed, aka no cuddling just yet. While Layton respected her boundaries, he went straight to work on his laptop and left his new wife to herself.
Despite trying to be more open, Melinda revealed during the first dinner party she had been struggling to find a physical attraction to Layton. However, after some great advice from single mum, Melissa, she isn’t ready to give up quite yet.
While these two work on their connection, Melinda began to worry their was no possibility of a deeper connection. For intimacy week, the relationship expert challenged the two to look into each others eyes for 5 minutes, which Layton tried and failed to make shorter.
“It was hard to be in the moment when I could see Layton clearly wasn’t,” she said.
“When a relationship becomes a priority to you and I become something your interested in, you let me know”
There is no doubt Layton has a blind spot when it comes to emotion. But after Melinda made it clear her husband needed to step up, he organised an adorable private dance class.
It sparked a memory for Mel of their wedding day, where she told Layton she didn’t know how to dance. Our hearts are melting!
There has been some arguments between the two very head-strong people, especially regarding their lack of communication. In the previous episodes, the couple have managed to surpass this issue but during the home stay they may have pushed too far.
And it was all over a cupboard door being left open…
Despite their issues, Melinda admitted she was “already there” when asked if she was falling in love with Layton. But he didn’t trust her confession.
“How are you falling in love with me if you can’t communicate?” Layton said.
When the question turned on him, Layton answered: “I’m not there yet” which left Melinda feeling heartbroken and uncertain of her relationship.
After the explosive truth bomb, the pair separated in the lead up to the final vows ceremony. Yet despite all their problems, Melinda and Layton were one of two couples wanting to work on their connection outside the experiment.
However, three months after filming ended their relationship has reportedly gone downhill as the pair struggle with long-distance and busy lifestyles as entrepreneurs. Now fans are speculating the couple have split.
“Melinda and Layton are technically still together, but their relationship hasn’t blossomed like she’d hoped since filming wrapped. They’ve been doing long distance but it’s fizzled a little bit as they’re both so busy running their businesses,” a source told Yahoo Lifestyle.
“As of right now, there’s not many sparks flying. Some of the cast think it’s only a matter of time until Layton ends things.”