It was the scandal that forced Married At First Sight producers to hit the brakes – and it has never been reported… until now.
As his on-screen marriage hits the skids, Ryan Donnelly is breaking his silence on the moment he threatened legal action against his combative ‘wife’ Jacqui Burfoot.
In an exclusive interview, the controversial groom lifts the lid on the explosive moment Jacqui took a joke about his sex life too far, forcing the show to halt production as Ryan was left feeling ‘disgusted’.
And as if that wasn’t enough, he’s also exposing her secret relationship with their co-star Clint Rice, alleging it began behind closed doors while they were technically still ‘married’ on the show.
The joke that started it all
Ryan’s nightmare began on the honeymoon when an innocent moment in front of the cameras took a dark turn.
It was the scandal that forced Married At First Sight producers to hit the brakes – and it has never been reported… until now. (Pictured: Ryan Donnelly and Jacqui Burfoot)
In an exclusive interview, Ryan lifts the lid on the explosive moment Jacqui took a joke about his sex life too far, forcing the show to halt production as Ryan was left feeling ‘disgusted’
‘We were just having banter, laughing in our robes, sipping champagne, and making jokes about the fancy hotel pillows,’ Ryan tells me.
There was one pillow on the menu specifically for pregnant women. He replied with banter, jokingly saying, ‘Be careful, these arms can cause pregnancies.’
What happened next would sour their marriage.
It went down like a lead balloon.
‘The next thing I knew, she sat up in bed, recoiled from me and started interrogating me like I was a criminal,’ Ryan adds.
From there, the situation spiralled out of control.
‘She was grilling me – asking if I had ever got someone pregnant, if I had a criminal record. It was insane,’ he tells me. ‘I was trapped. I had to answer truthfully because I knew we were being filmed, but I could feel the walls closing in.’
During their honeymoon, a joke Ryan made about his biceps set Jacqui off and she grilled him about some deeply personal matters, including whether he’d ever got a woman pregnant
At the first commitment ceremony, Jacqui made sure the controversy wasn’t buried
Producers later reassured Ryan the footage would never be aired due to its sensitive nature. But days later, Jacqui brought it up in front of the entire cast.
Commitment ceremony from hell
At the first commitment ceremony, Jacqui made sure the controversy wasn’t buried.
‘She sat down in front of the experts and said, “Ryan, why don’t you tell them about the joke you made?” Ryan recalls.
‘I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She was actually going to try to use this against me.’
Caught off guard, he repeated the joke in front of his co-stars and the experts. To his surprise, about half the cast laughed.
Jacqui lost it.
According to Ryan, she screamed across the room, ‘How can you all find that funny? I will forever stand up for women’s rights – especially when it comes to rape!’
The entire room fell silent when Jacqui said something utterly outrageous. The experts leaned forward in their seats anxiously. Producers immediately cut filming
Ryan was stunned. His joke hadn’t been a rape joke.
‘What the hell? Where did that even come from?’ he tells me, recounting the moment.
The entire room had fallen silent. The experts leaned forward in their seats anxiously. Producers immediately cut filming.
Ryan was shaking. ‘I nearly ripped off my mic and ran out that sliding door,’ he says.
‘It was the most surreal, horrifying moment of my life.’
Meanwhile, the producers were scrambling to contain the situation.
‘One of the heads of production ran in and told me, “That was horrific. Not only is it bad for you, but it’s dangerous for the network.”‘
Ryan was advised to get legal representation. Immediately.
Ryan calls in the lawyers
Shaken, Ryan wasted no time in taking action.
‘I rang my solicitor, and told him everything. He wrote it all down and assured me I was protected,’ Ryan explains.
Meanwhile, production company EndemolShine Australia briefed Channel Nine on the situation and crisis talks were held to contain it.
‘They told me it would never be aired and no one was allowed to discuss it outside that room,’ adds Ryan.
‘But I was traumatised. I couldn’t sleep for two to three nights.’
While Jacqui (left) was waging war against Ryan, she was hiding a scandal of her own – an off-screen rendezvous with Clint Rice (centre, with his ‘wife’ Lauren Hall on the right)
Clint and his ‘wife’ Lauren are pictured during filming last year. Sometime during production, Jacqui caught his eye and they are now a couple and living together in Tasmania
Jacqui and Clint’s 3am chats
While Jacqui was waging war against Ryan, she was hiding a secret of her own: her late night phone chats with Clint Rice, with whom she would later strike up a romance.
‘She even admitted to me one night, “Oh, after one night when I was really upset, I actually called Clint at, like, 3am,’ Ryan reveals.
‘They had a full-on conversation about how much she hated the experiment, how much she hated me, how much she hated Rhi [Disljenkovic, another MAFS bride]. And I’m just sitting there thinking… why is she going to him?’
The warning signs had been there long before that 3am phone call, however.
‘You saw on [our] wedding day. “Oh, I’m disappointed he’s not blond. Why isn’t he clean-shaven? His dog’s a red flag.” The criticism started almost immediately,’ Ryan says.
‘I didn’t even know half of those things were being said about me until the show actually aired.’
Ryan alleges Jacqui was messaging Clint while they were still ‘married’.
‘They started forming a relationship while Jacqui and I were still in the experiment,’ he says bluntly.
‘And I’m sitting there wondering, were you ever really happy with me? Or did you just pretend when it suited you?’
Why this scandal is far from over
Ryan believes Jacqui (pictured arriving for a dinner party) is behind a smear campaign to make him look like a bad guy
Ryan isn’t the only one questioning Jacqui’s motives. In his view, she’s behind a smear campaign to make him look like a bad guy – and other cast members agree.
‘She and Clint planned to expose me on camera. I still have the texts,’ Ryan says.
‘I saw them scheming. They were plotting how to make me look bad, how to paint me as the villain.’
Now, as the end of their televised union looms, Jacqui is doubling down.
‘All she does now is post social media rants about me,’ Ryan says, his voice shaking with frustration.
‘She’s obsessed. It’s 24/7 condemnation of me. I’m blocked, but people keep sending me her posts. At this point, I’m just laughing.’
Meanwhile, insiders say Jacqui is privately fuming over how the narrative of her marriage to Ryan has played out.
Whatever happens on the show, Ryan is standing by his experience.
‘At the end of the day, I know my truth. Jacqui can try to spin whatever story she wants, but the facts are the facts.’
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