We’re used to hearing her say “Have you been intimate yet?”, but Married At First Sight expert Dr Trisha Stratford will no longer utter those infamous words following her official exit from the show. And the one question on everyone’s mind is, why did she leave?
There has been an air of mystery surrounding Trisha’s departure from MAFS but in an exclusive Woman’s Day New Zealand interview, the psychologist reveals all.
In the interview, Trisha reveals that she was left feeling “sick” because the direction of the show was becoming toxic for the contestants and their mental health.
She went on to tell the publication, “By the end, I couldn’t compromise my professional and personal standards because there were participants on the show who I felt shouldn’t have been there.”
She added: “If someone gets through the critical selection process, when we say we don’t want them on the show because they’re quite fragile, they’re not going to do well after the show.”
Those allegations aren’t too surprising to most fans of the show as each season veers closer to crossing the line just a little more every year.
If her worries about the show’s ethics were not loud enough, Trisha went on to claim that going through the show is “a tough gig psychologically” and is comparable to “conflict in war zones.”
Last season, the New Zealand psychologist became nervous that the show had strayed from the original “observational documentary” she had signed up to.
She said, “It got supersized, a bit like MasterChef, into what we know as MAFS now. The participants we got in season six and seven were so outrageous and outside the norm that it wasn’t what I signed up for.
“At a couple of dinner parties I felt sick. I felt in my guts that this wasn’t what I’d want to be watching at home on TV.”
When news broke the expert was leaving the show, a statement released to 9Entertainment revealed that Trisha left the show to focus on other projects.
“After seven seasons of Married At First Sight I have decided to step back from the television series to focus on my writing, research and neuropsychotherapy,” she said in the statement.
“I’ve been involved right from the beginning in the challenge of bringing this social experiment to television.”
Channel Nine also thanked Trisha for the role she played on the show and “the extraordinary contribution” she has made to the success of Married At First Sight.
“She showed great courage joining this very unconventional social experiment in its first short series and helped transform it into the hugely successful franchise it is today. We wish her all the best as she re-directs her energies back into her professional career.”
Trisha was best known for asking the contestants if they had been “intimate” with one another and her pheromones test where she asks contestants to smell each other’s shirts.
And while Trisha’s absence will be sorely missed, MAFS fans were introduced to new Puerto Rican sexologist, Alessandra Rampolla.
Alessandra is also a marriage and family therapist, and replaces Trisha when it comes to asking the contestants all the intimate and often uncomfortable questions.
Although, she wants to make it clear that while it appears that she’s replaced Trish, it doesn’t feel like she’s stepping into the former expert’s shoes.
“I don’t think I’m filling anybody’s shoes, I walk in my own,” she exclusively told WHO ahead of the MAFS season premiere.
Alessandra has described the reality TV experiment as “a wonderful vehicle to show the public what really goes on in relationships” and that she’s hoping the conversations the couples have on screen will inspire couples at home to have similar conversations.
“That’s really exciting for me as a professional to have a platform that is so massive where you can give out information that will reach people who may be there for the fun part of it but will inevitably hear what you have to say,” she said.
“To be able to bring up the topics of sexuality and really highlight them as one of the pillars of what makes a good, lasting relationship in the long haul I thought was very important so I see a lot of value in the possibilities that MAFS gives me as a professional to talk to the public.”
She may not be stepping into Dr Trisha’s shoes but Alessandra did find it really interesting to work with her fellow experts, Mel Schilling and John Aiken.
“I’ve never felt like it’s just me bringing what I bring in – Melanie, John and I just really work well off each other,” she said.
Along with relationship expert John Aiken, Trish was one of the longest-serving experts on Married At First Sight and has been there since the first season.
Want a smoother ride to relationship happiness? Sign up to eHarmony today!
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
