To viewers, Melinda and Layton appear to be one of the strongest couples in this year’s MAFS experiment. However, a source has revealed that scenes showing massive blow ups between the pair were left on the cutting room floor.
An insider told Yahoo Lifestyle Australia that Melinda and Layton’s fighting scenes were removed so that their relationship fit the narrative that producers were trying to convey.
“Melinda and Layton were just as tumultuous as Bronte and Harrison throughout production, but producers decided to minimise this on the show. It would distract from the narrative of Melinda being the voice of reason in the group and Harrison being the ‘villain’ with the crumbling relationship,” the source said.
They added: “In reality, her and Layton would often be found screaming at each other. When the couple swap challenge was revealed, their fight actually lasted three hours and escalated to them screaming at each other across the building’s hallway – but this didn’t make the edit.”
This week saw MAFS introduce a brand new task for the married participants, a couple swap. Monday’s episode saw the current participants switch partners with others in the experiment. Evelyn was paired with Duncan, Lyndall was paired with Ollie, Melinda was paired with Harrison, Alyssa was paired with Cam and Tahnee was paired with Rupert. While Layton was paired with Bronte, he refused to stay in the same room as her.
John Aiken, who makes up one of the three ‘relationship experts’ on this year’s season of MAFS, told 9Entertainment that they wanted to “up the ante” this year.
“What we wanted to do this year, being Season 10, is really try and up the ante with the couples,” he explained. “They’ve watched the series, so they tend to know what’s coming. We wanted to take them out of their comfort zone, and so we created Feedback Week.”
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He continued, “It’s essentially a very intense form of getting a critique from people outside of your relationship. We re-pair the couples, so that they can get up, close and personal with someone who is going to give them feedback about their marriage.”
For more on this topic, follow the Reality TV Observer.
