Married at First Sight UK contestant Laura Vaughan has revealed the welfare measures she believes would have stopped the Channel 4 show from being cancelled.
Channel 4 announced on Thursday (5 November) that it planned to discontinue the reality show following an external review of its welfare protocols. The investigations found that the show could continue if adjustments were made and that Channel 4 did not breach the Ofcom code, however the broadcaster’s chief executive Priya Dogra decided that the format had “run its course over 10 years”.
The review came after two women claimed they had been raped by their on-screen matches during filming of the show, while a third – 2023 series star Shona Manderson – accused her on-screen husband of sexual misconduct.
It was recommended that, if the show were to continue, certain elements of the format should be changed – with couples being separated on their wedding night and during honeymoon trips (as most share a room) and installing CCTV in all the couples’ apartments as well as panic buttons and bathroom locks.
Speaking to The Independent, Vaughan – who appeared on the show’s eighth series – said that while she had a “largely positive journey” on MAFS UK, certain welfare measures needed to be brought in for the show to survive.
“I think it’s incredibly sad that it’s got to the point that it has,” she said. “I genuinely believe that there was potentially a world in which this just absolutely never needed to happen.”
The show already conducted extensive background checks on those applying to be contributors, however Vaughan suggested that producers needed to learn how to recognise male contestants with dangerous attitudes towards women, citing how incel culture has become “increasingly normalised” in recent years.
“The welfare that exists as you’re filming needs to become better equipped to recognise dangerous attitudes in time,” she said, “because we know that sometimes those beliefs and behaviours don’t come out unless you’re in a highly pressurised environment and MAFS would definitely be that.”
She continued: “It is pressurising. It puts pressure on contestants to feel certain things and behave a certain way. That’s not saying that you have someone in your ear saying you need to behave this way – it’s not as explicit as that.
“It’s just being part of the whole bubble and sometimes that can generate quite polarising attitudes and behaviours. We’ve seen the dinner parties where people will just be screaming and shouting and that just wouldn’t exist in our everyday life.”
The show sees single contestants agree to “marry” strangers after being matched by dating experts, with the couples then spending several months living together in the same block of apartments as the rest of the cast before deciding at the end whether to stay “married”. Each week, they attend group therapy sessions with the dating experts and dinner parties, which is where most of the explosive arguments would take place.
On her series, Vaughan, 37, was matched up with tennis coach Arthur Poremba, however their romance didn’t last and they split before the final episode. She became friends with fellow contestant Manderson, who claimed that her partner on the show, Bradley Skelly, ejaculated inside her without asking her permission. They were removed from the show shortly afterwards after the experts called out Skelly on screen for speaking to her in a controlling way.
Skelly told BBC News that he understood Manderson had consented to him ejaculating insider her that night and categorically denies “any allegations of sexual misconduct” or that he was “controlling”.
Vaughan suggested that if MAFS UK had brought in an external welfare office from a charity like Women’s Aid, then that may have helped Manderson’s situation on the show. “I think unfortunately the couple needed to leave. Brad’s behaviour towards her was just concerning from the offset. I just could tell straight away that there was something not quite right about the dynamic,” she said.
“I think you needed a welfare team that was skilled at recognising relationship dynamics rather than just being there to make sure everyone’s OK. You need up-skilling to identify worrying behaviours and patterns and signs of someone just not being themselves, not having their agency, not making decisions that they necessarily would have advocated for themselves in the outside world.”
Vaughan – who uses her platform from the show to advocate for women’s safety – also said that it’s difficult to find a balance between ensuring contestants’ wellbeing while still making entertaining TV.
“There are really good welfare production members but I think unfortunately with reality TV, you are sat within this cognitive dissonance of wanting to make a really good, drama TV show for ratings and then also wanting to treat your contributors with respect and make sure that their safety is of importance.
“I don’t always necessarily understand where the connect can come and if those two realities can quite happily coexist together. I think that’s true of all reality TV.”
Channel 4 declined to comment when approached by The Independent.
A filmed series of MAFS UK will not be airing on Channel 4, with the broadcaster explaining that it was not made under the recommended strengthened protocols.
MAFS Australia, another popular edition of the global franchise, is not affected by the review and is due to return in 2027.
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