Married At First Sight star Thomas Hartley has shared his thoughts on the show's first transgender bride and the controversy that has followed.
Season eight of MAFS UK recently kicked off and saw transgender woman Ella Morgan Clark join the programme and wed Nathanial Valentino.
Some questioned if Nathanial was informed of Ella's transition before the pair made it to the altar, to which MAFS experts Paul C. Brunson and Mel Schilling insisted that he did.
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"We did get consent, we got her consent, and we got his consent, he knew that he was marrying a trans woman," Mel said amid the backlash.
Paul added: "I think it'll be apparent once you watch the show, right? Everyone's talking about things that they haven't even seen yet, but once you watch it, you will understand how much care that we've put into not just Ella's match, but in everyone's match on the show."
But Ella and Nathanial's romance was short lived after the 29-year-old had her head turned by another groom in the experiment - drama that is yet to air.
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Things apparently came to blows between the pair and Nathanial ultimately quit the social experiment, with him going on to slam MAFS and label it as a 'complete sham'.
Nathanial also claimed that the programme isn't as unscripted as it appears and that there's a team pushing participants in a certain direction to fit the story.
E4 has since denied his allegations and insisted Nathanial "entered this process voluntarily with full and informed consent, and in this instance was actually provided with more information than we would ordinarily share with cast members, to make him aware that his bride was trans."
While he had his own rocky experience on MAFS, season seven star Thomas Hartley has echoed similar sentiments - which comes after Nathanial was seen out and about with Thomas' ex-groom, Adrian Sanderson.
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"I want to make this absolutely crystal, crystal clear - when you go on the show, you are interviewed multiple times. I'd say above five times," Thomas said in a rant shared to Instagram.
"You have multiple conversations."
Thomas went on to say that some of the topics covered in the pre-show interviews are what genders you're willing to date - trans people included - as well as race and weight, along with other characteristics.
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"Anyone who is trying to create the false narrative that they've been blindsided by somebody in that show in that capacity regarding protective characteristics, is a f***king liar. Liar, liar liar. 100 percent liar."
While he didn't name Nathanial, Thomas went on to slate people who have been doing newspaper articles.
"The propaganda against trans people in the current climate is absolutely disgusting," he further fumed.
"This was supposed to be an empowering moment for the community - to normalise transgender people within society. There's so much bigotry against them."
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Thomas continued to label the person he was discussing as a 'self-absorbed idiot' as the urged the unnamed individual who claims to be pansexual to google the definition of it.
Topics: Channel 4, LGBTQ+, Married At First Sight, TV And Film
Niamh Shackleton