"I think he didn’t want to confuse things and he probably wasn't really sure about us outside of the experiment yet," she said. "And maybe I had a little too much wine and was too dehydrated from the hot spa. Who knows."
"There was an unbelievable amount of pressure," Mark also agreed. "But we were both very open and honest saying that some of our previous relationships had been built on sex and they had failed due to this so we both wanted a different approach to this relationship."
Instead of spicing things up in the bedroom, Mark said he used their getaway to discuss topics he and Ning had been putting off.
"I organised this as an opportunity to get away from Sydney, the other couples, the group environment and all mobile devices so we could be in a place where we could completely focus on ourselves after a pretty drama-filled week," he said.
"We were able to have some good lengthy chats about how far we'd come, where we were at and the obstacles like the huge geographical distance between us and the idea of uprooting her three children. Since about week three, we'd been shelving these topics and conversations about our own lifestyles and the changes both of us would have to make at the end of this experiment given where our lives were. This was a good chance away from everything to have these."
At the previous commitment ceremony, Ning opted to leave the experiment after hearing at the girls' night that her husband was in the experiment for the wrong reasons. Explaining that their marriage was on the rocks, she told Mark "I don't think we are going to make it." Despite her uncertainty, Mark wrote "stay" on his card meaning she was obliged to remain in the experiment for at least one more week.
