Newly single MAFS star Duncan James has defended his TV ex-wife Alyssa saying that he hates the backlash she’s received in recent weeks.
Duncan and Alyssa were paired together in the experiment but broke up last night at final vows when he told her that he didn’t want to move forward in a relationship with her.
While Duncan and Alyssa’s relationship started out relatively strong and appeared to get off to a good start, their relationship has been showing cracks in recent episodes. They first began disagreeing at the couple’s retreat when Alyssa demanded that the cyber security salesman give her more attention and reassurance.
Since then, Alyssa and Duncan have been on shaky grounds and everything came to a head on their hometown date when they went out on Duncan’s boat in the Northern Beaches of Sydney. On the date, Alyssa repeatedly told him that he would never understand her perspective because she” has a child” and Duncan said that he didn’t think they have a good relationship.
In last night’s episode, Alyssa said that she wanted to stay with Duncan and “help him” become more emotional. However, Duncan decided that he didn’t think the relationship was a “good” one, and choose to end it.
Alyssa has since received a lot of backlash about the way she’s acting, but Duncan told news.com.au that he doesn’t agree with the negative response she’s received, and called the savage social media comments “disappointing” and “cruel”.
He continued, “The stuff that people are saying about her and to her … I hate it. I’ve seen some of it, I don’t see much of it, I do try to pull myself away from it.”
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“No one deserves some of the horrible comments people have said.”
The MAFS star pointed out that he has always tried to speak positively of his former partner, especially in media interviews.
“If anybody asked me, in any interview, about Alyssa, you’ll always see that I talk positively of her, because that’s what I genuinely think about her.
“It’s crazy how cruel some people can be behind a keyboard when they’ve seen one aspect of somebody’s life.”
While Duncan admitted that some of Alyssa’s comments were hard to take, like her mention of “helping” Duncan, he wanted to allow her the chance to speak her mind.
“I didn’t know how to take some of those words …” he said.
“I was pretty happy-go-lucky at the start of the experiment, and I think that through the conflict we had … I even looked at myself on TV [last night] and I was like … I look tired. I look emotionally exhausted.
“So, if that’s sort of the way that I changed, then I guess that’s for Alyssa to say.”
He added, “I wanted to be respectful to let her say her words, but I don’t think that any words that came out of her mouth was going to change what I had decided to say,” he said.
“I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and it was a tough time to work through that.”
Duncan told the publication that he and Alyssa haven’t spoken since filming wrapped.
“Hopefully we’ll talk in the coming weeks … But at the same time, if she doesn’t want to, that’s OK as well.
“It’s not my place to have some form of communication or relationship with someone and then continue talking to them if they don’t want you to.
“I’m mindful of that as well. It’s like, ‘Hey, I’m here if you need me, but if you don’t, I totally understand’.”
For more on this topic, follow the Reality TV Observer.
