On the latest episode of Married At First Sight Australia, Olivia Frazer revealed she felt “gaslighted” into apologising to Domenica Calarco by her own husband, Jackson Lonie, and didn’t mean a word she had just said.
Again, we find ourselves asking: does Olivia know she’s being filmed?
WATCH: Olivia and Domenica fight on the Couple’s Retreat
It’s the age old question viewers ask season after season.
Maybe you’ve been here from the beginning, when MAFS was just a low-key and wholesome series. Maybe you’re newly obsessed with the reality TV juggernaut. Either way, at some point you’ve probably found yourself wondering: does this person realise they are being filmed?
From The Bachelor to Love Island to MAFS, every single reality TV dating series involves some level of feuding from the contestants. And, without fail, there’s always someone who says wild things in front of the camera that completely contradict everything else happening around them.
On this season of MAFS, that person is Olivia.
At the Commitment Ceremony last week, Olivia called Domenica a “bully” and said she “always has to pick on someone.” She said this because Domenica was voicing her disapproval of how Carolina Santos has been treating her husband, Dion Giannarelli.
For the record, Carolina has told Dion that he “has nothing” and “is empty” because he doesn’t like rap music, breakfast or the gym as much as Daniel Holmes, who she is having a secret “affair” with. Anyway.
Domenica responded to tell Olivia she was a victim of bullying in school and that she wasn’t sorry for sticking up for someone else.
The feud was reignited on the Couple’s Retreat, with Olivia comparing Domenica and Carolina to animals and saying she was “excited” to watch them fight.
The comments sparked a war of wards between the two, that ended with Domenica smashing a glass on the table in anger. She then stood up as they continued to bicker and left the table… glass very much shattered on the table and not in her hands.
“She got up, stood over me and smashed her wine glass and then waved the broken wine glass in my face while she stood over me,” Olivia told all the grooms as the group reconnected at the end of the night.
There were other witnesses who called out this false narrative, namely Ella Ding, who responded “she wasn’t using it as a weapon” and said Olivia was stirring the pot.
“What the f—k? That story got blown completely out of proportion,” she said on the night. And she continued to back up Domenica at tonight’s Dinner Party.
At tonight’s Dinner Party, all eyes were on the girls after the incident.
While Domenica had profusely apologised at the time and acknowledged what she did wasn’t okay, she did try to discuss the way the argument leading up had triggered trauma of being bullied in the past.
Olivia and Carolina weren’t interested and made snide remarks throughout the speech, though most other co-stars appeared to accept the apology. Jackson pulled Olivia up on the comments, telling her they were “mean.”
Showing up to the Dinner Party, Olivia told her co-stars she didn’t have “anything left” and would be a “statue” when it came to facing Domenica – but then she spoke to every single person about how much she doesn’t like her. So much so, that experts John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Alessandra Rampolla pointed it out.
When Domenica and her husband, Jack Millar, showed up to the party they went around the room hugging their co-stars and Olivia deliberately walked away as Dom approached. But then she told Carolina she would say hello if Dom approached her… odd.
Sitting down at the dinner table, Olivia picked back up where she had left off and began making snide remarks when Domenica tried to talk to Carolina. Again, this was called out by the experts, who said they were “backing Dom into a corner.” It was similar to how things went down on the retreat.
Does being poked and prodded with insults excuse smashing a glass on a table? No, absolutely not. But Domenica never said it did, she merely tried to talk through how the fight happened in the first place.
Olivia did say it was okay to admit you did something wrong AND try to explain what triggered it… but only when it came to Matt Ridley. She said Matt made a real apology and Domenica didn’t. She also said she would never accept an apology anyway so, what are we talking about then?
Matt spoke up to defend Domenica, which was nice so hooray for Matt, because as soon as he did many others around the table also defended her. Most noticeably Ella, who has been playing the role of fact-checker to Olivia since the night of the incident.
Olivia also repeated her version of the “glassing” events, saying it had been “smashed to her face.” Which isn’t true, there is literally video footage.
So it makes sense Domenica yelled out, “re-watch the tape!” because that is exactly what we are saying, gal. Everything is filmed and will eventually be seen.
At the end of the spat, Jack told Olivia he didn’t appreciate her snide remarks, with one in particular sticking out.
“You said ‘now you’ve got a taste of your own medicine’ and for me fighting fire with fire is a no go,” he said.
“I will apologise for those snide comments, I did not intend to say it and I’m really sorry,” Olivia replied, with Jackson also saying he’d spoken to her about it already and she knew he didn’t approve of her behaviour.
So, she apologised. But a few seconds later she moved down to the end of the table saying “I’m done, I’m walking away.”
Then she told Samantha Moitzi: “I just apologised and I’m not sorry for anything. How did that happen? I feel gaslighted.”
To the cameras, she said: “I don’t know how I ended up being the one apologising for anything? I hope Jackson’s proud of me for how I behaved tonight, I’m not proud of myself because I wish I didn’t apologise. I’ll hate her for the rest of our lives.”
So… again we ask, does she realise they’re being filmed?
Saying sorry to someone just so you look good to your partner in the moment, because he is worried about you being mean, but then going and confessing it on camera? That’s going to air and he is going to see it. And everyone who was told Domenica was “waving glass” in people’s faces is going to see that also didn’t happen.
It’s not the first or last time you’ll see a reality TV contestant caught up in a mess like this, but it’s still surprising every single time because… have they not watched the show? Have they not watched any shows?
We’ve literally seen these types of shenanigans lead to splits.
Who could forget when Jessika Power lied to Dan Webb about propositioning Nic Jovanavic on MAFS, only for him to find out watching the episodes and break up with her on live television after seeing it happen on-screen? ‘Twas a mess.
The simple fact is that if you’re on television your actions will be filmed, and Twitter very much enjoyed Domenica yelling “re-watch the tapes” tonight because… well… it’s just accurate.
Married At First Sight Australia airs Monday to Wednesday, 7:30pm, and Sunday, 7pm, on Nine Network and 9Now.
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