The pressure reached a boiling point on Tuesday’s episode of Married At First Sight when groom Paul Antoine confronted wife Carina Mirabile with his shocking Honesty Letter.
Paul, 30, had previously read the letter out to bride Awhine Rutene when he was staying with her during the Partner Swap, and told her he felt Carina was a ‘snob’ for judging Awhina’s twin sister Cleo for having tattoos.
A nervous-looking Paul told the camera he felt it would be ‘confronting’ to read out the letter to Carina, and he was then seen sitting down with her in their apartment.
‘There’s been multiple times I have noticed some contradiction between the way Carina portrays herself and her actions,’ Paul read out to his TV wife.
‘To comment that she is not into tattoos when she herself has some! I feel like she is just playing it safe with me and wanted it to be smooth sailing to avoid drama or confrontation.’
A shocked Carina, 31, said she had been blindsided by the contents of Paul’s letter.
‘I didn’t see any of that coming from Paul. If anyone is sweeping things under the rug… he clearly is because he hasn’t brought any of those things up with me,’ a frustrated Carina vented.
Paul went on the tell his wife he had some ‘examples’ of some of her behaviour which made him uncomfortable.
‘I told you about Awhina and [my past with] Cleo… you said you were surprised that I would go with “that calibre”,’ he read.
However, when it came to the part of the letter which read, ‘I feel like she is a bit of a snob’, Paul began tripping over his words and refused to read it aloud.
Instead, he substituted the word ‘snob’ for the less hurtful: ‘I feel like she is a bit judgy’.
Nevertheless, Carina appeared devastated by Paul’s words and did not hold back when speaking to the camera: ‘A bit of a slap in the face, a shock.
‘Wow, I can’t believe this is what he thinks of me.’
Carina then confronted Paul and told him she was right to be concerned about him associating with Awhina, when he had already been romantically involved with her twin sister.
‘The whole Cleo thing is obviously going to make me feel a certain way when my husband has been with a girl in the experiment… and had a thing with her sister,’ Carina told Paul.
‘It’s awkward! I’m sorry, but it is just not me!’
Carina had broken down in tears on Monday night when she was told Awhina would be moving in with her husband during Partner Swap week.
Paul then exited the room, forgetting he had left his Honesty Letter on the table which Carina was seen reading – and looking devastated when she realised he had left out the word ‘snob’ when reading it to her.
An explosive confrontation followed, in which Carina demanded to know why he had not properly read the letter out to her: ‘Why did you miss out the part saying I was a snob?’
‘Because when I read it out I thought it was a bit unnecessary,’ Paul said – before admitting he had told Awhina he thought Carina was indeed a ‘snob’.
Carina bluntly told Paul ‘it wasn’t the right thing to say’ and later told the camera she was ‘brutally embarrassed’ by his words.
It comes after the MAFS bride sobbed and said she was ‘uncomfortable’ with her husband sleeping in the same bed as Awhina after he briefly dated her twin sister Cleo two years ago.
She claimed the partner swap, which sees each contestant swap their betrothed with someone else for three days, was ‘like a form of cheating’ and she didn’t want to take part in it.
‘I don’t like that. No, I don’t want to do that. Why Awhina out of all the girls?’ Carina told Paul when they learned of the new challenge.
‘You’ve already slept with her sister now you’re going to sleep in the same bed as her.’
Carina went on to tell producers Paul had informed her a few weeks prior of his sexual history with Awhina’s identical twin sister.
‘A few weeks ago, Paul told me he had a little fling back in the day with Awhina’s twin sister. So, yeah,’ she said.
‘My heart is racing. No hard feelings toward Awhina, but Awhina and her sister look identical.
‘I don’t want Awhina moving into our apartment and sleeping in our bed with my husband.’
The digital marketing manager said she feels ‘protective and possessive’ over Paul and doesn’t want to share him with another woman.
Married At First Sight continues at 7.30pm on Wednesday on Channel Nine and 9Now.