Married At First Sight Australia participant Mikey Pembroke has been banned from flying overseas after a small smudge was found on his passport.
The reality star, 33, took to his Instagram Stories to share his travel nightmare with a post showing his stained passport.
‘2024 [is the] year of gifts… can’t fly because of this,’ he wrote, with an arrow pointing to the offending mark on the travel document.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Mikey said that he was on his way to Bali for a 4 day holiday when he was told he couldn’t fly because of the blemish.
Mikey said the passport must have suffered water damage when he was coming back from a trip to Las Vegas in April.
Under Australian Federal law, a passport must be replaced if it has endured more than ‘reasonable wear and tear.’
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, ‘Even minor passport damage can stop you from travelling.
‘Damage that might require you to replace your passport includes water damage, unofficial markings on the data page, missing visa pages or tears.’
The MAFS groom said that he was going to have to fork out around $800 to replace the passport, plus an additional $1000-$1200 to book new flights, and would have to miss out on a day of his holiday.
Mikey wondered if going from a 4 day break to 3 days was worth leaving the country.
The reality star admits 2024 has been ‘the toughest year’ for him.
‘Massive challenges, just went through a break up, relocating to the Gold Coast, resigning from my family business after 8 years, and a number of family issues,’ he said.
Mikey rose to fame on Married At First Sight in 2020, where he was matched with Natasha Spencer for the seventh season.
The pair had an explosive relationship and unfortunately split before the season’s end.