Married at First Sight groom Tim Gromie horrified viewers on Monday night after he bluntly told his wife Katie Johnstone he didn’t feel a ‘spark’ on their wedding night.
Katie, 37, had moved into their apartment without him and arrived at the first MAFS dinner party alone, becoming emotional as she told her fellow brides why Tim wasn’t with her.
‘Tim woke me up on the wedding night to tell me he didn’t have a spark. He wanted to know if he should leave [the series] or not,’ Katie told her female co-stars.
Meanwhile, Tim also arrived to the party alone and bluntly told the shows relationship experts that Katie was to blame for their marital problems.
‘All I will say is that I feel I have been the one making most of the effort,’ Tim said.
Katie then asked him, ‘Are you serious?’ and he responded: ‘I feel like I have opened up and you haven’t wanted to get to know me at all.
‘I’m just disappointed I didn’t get the support I would give you no matter what.’
A disheartened Katie then responded: ‘So, apparently I suck at relationships.’
However, Katie’s co-stars quickly took her side and called out Tim’s behaviour.
‘I don’t know if everyone is drinking Kool-Aid here… It looks like he has completely flipped the script and she is thinking it is her fault! What’s going on here?’ sniped fellow bride Jamie Marinos.
Viewers were shocked by Tim’s behaviour with several sharing their thoughts on X.
‘Tim last night – my wife doesn’t reach out to contact me. I’m the one who is trying the hardest in this marriage. Tim – the next day he has left his wife on move in day without talking to her and cowardly made the producers tell her. But he’s the best husband?!’ one person said.
‘Katie, repeat after me: I’m too good for Tim. Now say it over and over until you believe it,’ another wrote.
‘Don’t know why any woman in their right mind would even want to be in the same room with Tim, let alone continuing in the experiment with him,’ one more said.
‘Producer: so Tim has decided not to move into the apartment and is returning to Melbourne to have some time out for himself and think about his role in this experiment moving forward. So nothing has changed from when he was single,’ someone else chimed in.
‘Tim is the ultimate mood killer’ another said while one more wrote, ‘Tim you are the disappointment here nobody else’.
Another posted: ‘Tim Gaslighting?…Surely not!’
It comes after Tim’s questionable dating habits were exposed as several women confirmed the PE teacher was back on the apps after his stint on the show.
One single woman posted a photo of Tim in Melbourne’s ‘Sis is this your man?’ Facebook group after he became season 12’s villain for critiquing bride Katie Johnstone as not ‘short and petite’ enough.
The online group – where women post screenshots of men they have met on dating apps to confirm their single status – has 17,000 members.
The woman claimed Tim did not ask her out, but did ask her to come straight to his house.
‘I matched with him and he asked me on a date to his house,’ one single commented on Sunday. ‘He’s not looking for a relationship.’
‘My friend recently went on a date with him in Melbourne,’ another woman penned. ‘He said he looked very different from his pictures.’
Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed back in August that a groom had landed himself in hot water with the show’s producers after he was caught secretly messaging former MAFS contestants for advice behind his partner’s back.
Eden Harper, who appeared on last year’s series, revealed Tim had sent her a message back in August when honeymoon week was being filmed.
The unprompted text was sent to her at midnight on a Sunday.
‘I got this DM during honeymoon week of MAFS 2025 and I just thought it was someone asking for advice. But this is so f***ed up after watching last night,’ she said on TikTok.
Tim’s behaviour has been a major point of contention throughout the season, with his reluctance to embrace his match with Katie leaving fans outraged.
He previously expressed disappointment in their pairing, stating she didn’t match his ‘usual type’ and that he had no physical attraction to her.
The latest controversy follows a string of cringe-worthy moments, including his awkward attempt to justify why he wasn’t interested in Katie.
‘I’m trying to get there, but I can’t force it,’ he said in a previous episode, further frustrating viewers who believe he was never genuinely invested in the experiment.
Married At First Sight continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Nine and 9Now