While they looked like the picture-perfect couple on our screens, it’s become clear in recent weeks that Aleks Markovic and Ivan Sarakula’s relationship was rapidly falling apart behind the scenes.
WATCH: MAFS’ Aleks takes swipe at ex Ivan on TikTok
After ditching the Married At First Sight experiment so they could make their relationship work in the outside world, Aleks says their love for one another eventually faded when they agreed they’d never see eye to eye on important issues.
“Our lifestyle was just so different. We were just fighting a lot it was becoming toxic… So he dumped me,” she said during an Instagram Q&A.
The real estate agent also revealed their different values along with Ivan’s unwillingness to take the next step in their relationship led to their split.
“I’m ready to settle down and have kids and I just think our lifestyles wouldn’t match up with raising kids together. I need my values to match up with a man. I need them to be similar to me on how they want to raise kids,” she said, adding they’re “much better off as friends”.
While her ex-husband has remained relatively coy about the demise of their ‘marriage’, Aleks recently shut down speculation they’d split before returning to the reunion.
“Ivan and I dated until February when the relationship ended. Our values, wants, needs and lifestyles didn’t align and that’s okay. I wish him nothing but the best,” she wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of the duo.
During the reunion, they opened up about their budding relationship, confirming they were still going strong.
“I miss this man. That’s when I realised I fell in love with this man so much.”
From the back row, Josh admitted, “I’m so f***ing confused.”
Aleks stood by her shock statement. “I’m 100 per cent in love with him. And it took exiting the experiment, in the real world, to realise that.”
The couple and the group were then shown glimpses from their last dinner party and the fight that went down between Ivan, Josh and Michael.
“Do you think that if I really cheated on my husband at the time, we’d be sitting here together? Not where we come from, morally,” Aleks said, before taking a stab at Michael and Stacey.
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but if you want to stay together after your cheating scandals, that’s fine. We definitely had no cheating scandal.”
Ivan added: “We were a lot happier leaving at that stage. Michael and Joshy might have been privileged to details about our intimacy, but, hand on my heart, I didn’t give them direct instructions to come out and slaughter me and Aleks and I stand by that.”
As we know, the grooms went head to head when they claimed Ivan showed them a “provocative” and “sexual” video of his wife, with Michael speculating that was the reason behind their shock separation.
“I saw them. They were having a bit of fun in his car and there was one in there,” Michael said on The Kyle and Jackie O Show. “She was being a bit of a naughty little girl and Ivan decided it was a Kodak moment.”
Although he wasn’t sure who else had seen the racy content, Michael revealed the quirky real estate agent didn’t hesitate to show him proof that they were getting it on when the cameras weren’t rolling. And when his then-wife Stacey Hampton asked to see what they were looking at while sitting on the couch, Ivan quickly passed his phone to her.
“I think when faced with hard truths, some people will either fight or flee. I hadn’t even gotten started. What was coming was a full meal at the commitment ceremony and Aleks knew that and wasn’t ready to face it.”
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