The fourth wedding of Married at First Sight season 10 had more ups and downs than we can count – and we’re not quite sure Claire and Jesse can recover.
The Wedding
We knew we were in for a memorable wedding when introduced to marriage celebrant Jesse and his *very* long list of icks. The groom revealed he was quite picky with women and was quick to rule out potential partners. Interested in CrossFit? Love dogs? Enjoy star signs, crystals or astrology? Unfortunately, Jesse would just never be interested.
After the introduction to Jesse, it seemed the day was heading to disaster but we were pleasantly surprised when he and Claire hit it off during their wedding.
But boy were we wrong.
Things quickly went south after Claire innocently brought up astrology and crystals. Like a light switch, Jesse switched off the charm and was completely disinterested.
Yep, that was enough for Jesse to have doubts about his marriage.
The Honeymoon
Things went from bad to worse as the couple got ready for their honeymoon, where Jesse made it clear he found Claire too chatty – even ‘shooshing’ her at the airport.
And would you believe the honeymoon saw things get even more awkward? While things were kind of on the right track after Jesse tried to open up to Claire about his insecurities, he quickly got back into his own ways with the Honeymoon box challenge.
Re-explaining to Claire his “ick” list, Claire slammed Jesse as “superficial” and “close-minded.” When asked to reveal to each other what their most annoying and endearing traits were, Jesse put his foot in it when he mimicked Claire in an attempt to show how annoying her “random comments on everything were.”
“I was surprised when she walked away,” he explained, after Claire tearfully stormed out. “She asked for an example…I gave her an example.”
Claire described Jesse as “close-minded” and “emotionally immature,” as she packed her bags.
The first dinner party
As the couple geared up for the first dinner party of the season, things went from bad to worse (if that’s even possible).
Claire attempts to reconcile and open communication since they hadn’t spoken since their honeymoon. Whilst things may have temporarily been sorted, it quickly fell apart again when Claire asked why Jesse hadn’t approached her in the days of silence.
“I don’t chase girls,” was his reply. Ouch.
By then there was no hope for the couple’s first dinner party and both Claire and Jesse entered separately. Things were awkward, to say the least.
And what did the experts think? After watching the situation, they explained: “This is about Jesse’s fear, that she’s triggering in him… he’s really threatened by this well-developed, accomplished woman.”
“I think we really do have our work cut out for us.”
Adam and Claire
After a cast gathering during filming, Claire seemed to have taken a liking to Janelle’s partner, Adam. Leaving together, Jesse told cameras after arriving back to their apartment, “I heard this big bellowing laugh – a typical Adam-like laugh.”
Whilst Jesse was initially suspicious, both Claire and Adam vehemently denied the suggestions – and there was a calm before the storm.
Things were finally back on track for Claire and Jesse, until she revealed that she did in fact kiss Adam.
“I have broken your trust,” she told a shocked Jesse. “That night when we all went out and Adam and I went outside we kissed.”
“That is classic…I knew it, laughed Jesse, before calling Adam a “snake.”
“Thirty minutes chatting with a guy… I’m not sure what type of kiss you had, but I’m sure it’s more than what we had in three weeks,” he told a teary Claire.
“I thought you were bringing me out here to call it off, to break up with me. I couldn’t have imagined something worse than that – and it’s worse than that.”
Following the explosive episode, Claire appeared on Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa to set the story straight, revealing that the kiss was “like two seconds, three seconds max” and that she wasn’t on the phone to him later that night.
“Have you thought about kissing Adam again?,” asked Wippa.
The Commitment Ceremony
For Jesse and Claire, similar scenes to Adam and Janelle played out during the commitment ceremony, with the judges asking hard questions about the situation and where their relationship now stood. But it was clear to many that Claire was remorseful for her actions, sharing a more empathetic and genuine reaction than Adam ever did.
Although Jesse appreciated Claire’s efforts to redeem herself, he still chose to leave the experiment.
But for Claire, she chose to stay, “to earn back Jesse’s trust and forgiveness,” however, she did admit that she didn’t want Jessie “to feel like he has to stay if he doesn’t want to.”
Claire’s choice to stay wasn’t received too well by Jesse, who admitted he felt “grumpy,” following the news.
“I’m exhausted,” he said. “She might have some more gas in the tank and that’s great, it’s honourable, but I don’t have the same steam.”
Watch Below: Harrison’s Married At First Sight audition tape
Harrison adds fuel to the fire
Despite the couple slowly and steadily getting their relationship back on track, Harrison, who was lashing out after his own relationship was at the centre of discussion shared his doubts about Claire’s intentions with Jesse.
Jesse took Harrison’s advice to heart, revealing to Claire that he could not trust that she was still in the experiment for the right reasons. Sharing with the group that he feared Claire was there to repair her image, he further explained that he believed Claire only saw him as a “mate.”
Harrison’s meddling took its toll on Jesse & Claire, whose delicate relationship finally crumbled.
After Harrison revealed he thought Claire was still on the experiment to fix her image rather than develop a relationship, the seed of doubt struck a chord for Jesse, who chose to leave alongside Claire.
“Claire cheated on me,” explained Jesse. “I have stretched myself so much. I came into this saying that my fight or flight kicks in real quick and I’m quick to end things early on so I really stretched myself…but this comment really brought back a lot of things that I had been pushing to the side.”
“I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was a comment made by Harrison,” Jesse told the experts.
And Claire agreed, telling the experts herself, “I think it definitely came from Harrison’s comment. It seems as though Harrison wanted to deflect the pressure he may have been facing at the table…I think he turned his sights on what may be potentially the weakest of the couples.”
Jesse breaks his silence following the show
Following the pair’s decision to leave the series, Jesse has opened up about his experience on the show.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, the marriage celebrant revealed he wanted to leave the experiment as soon as the cheating scandal emerged.
“I don’t even know if I’m even allowed to be saying this right now, but I just tried my best and I said, once I found out about the kiss, and we went to the dinner party that weekend and I said to Claire, ‘I want to go home, I’m done with this. I want to go back to Perth.'”
“The commitment ceremony was the night after, and she still writes ‘stay’, and that still weighs on me.”
The divisive contestant shared how he struggled to understand why Claire kept writing stay at the commitment ceremonies, revealing that he believes she chose to continue in the experiment to “look after herself.”
Jesse also made the surprising revelation to the publication that he thought Claire would get the “villain-edit” of the season and was shocked to learn that he instead was painted out to be the bad guy early in their relationship.
Explaining that a lot of Claire’s scenes were edited out, he told Daily Mail Australia that he was confused why his wife was painted as the “angel of the season.”
“[Claire] is a supervillain on a silver platter, and they’re like, ‘No, we’ll take care of her.’ It’s almost criminal. The imbalance and the injustice, I can’t even explain it to you, man,” he said.
Married At First Sight Australia airs Monday to Wednesday, 7:30pm, and Sunday, 7pm, on Nine Network and 9Now.
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