Married At First Sight’s Dave Hand and Jamie Marinos have been spotted holding hands as their relationship took a battering in Wednesday night’s episode.
The couple, who had been one of the experiment’s strongest pairs, reached breaking point after Dave dropped a bombshell confession that his feelings weren’t progressing.
Prior to the heated episode being filmed, the couple appeared loved up as they walked hand-in-hand, oblivious to the drama that was about to unfold.
Jamie, 28, cut a sporty figure in black workout leggings, New Balance sneakers and a white crop top, with her killer abs on full display.
Dave, 36, looked cool, calm and collected in a simple white t-shirt, blue shorts and a matching blue cap.
The pair gave no sign that there may be trouble in paradise as they were seen sipping on their takeaway coffees, smiling and putting on a loved-up display.
Things spiralled out of control for the couple when Jamie was left a sobbing mess after she attempted to address Dave’s feelings and was met with indifference.
Jamie told producers: ‘Since my last conversation with Dave he hasn’t tried to resolve what we were talking about. He hasn’t tried to reassure me.’
‘Considering we have had so many weeks of being in a good place, I couldn’t feel further apart from him. I don’t know what he’s thinking.’
Unfortunately, Jamie was met with only coldness from Dave when she attempted to tell him how upset she was about his sudden lack of feelings for her.
‘The last conversation we had you said your feelings aren’t in the same place. I questioned your attraction to me. Imagine how I’m feeling,’ she told him.
‘You don’t think that would have been a good opportunity to validate me?’
Dave responded in a blasé manner: ‘I don’t know if you want to have this conversation here or at the dinner party.’
A stunned Jamie barked back: ‘Don’t you want to try and resolve it with me before we go to a dinner party?’ to which he replied: ‘If you want have the conversation now, let’s do it.’
‘What is with this reaction right now? Where is your emotion in this? Did you not just hear me?’ Jamie snapped.
‘I’m questioning your attraction and if you have romantic feelings for me. Do you know how upsetting that is?
‘Dave, you and me right now, I need to know that you’re here with me. I just don’t see it.’
Dave went on to explain he felt ‘upset’ she had questioned his feelings for her the night before, bringing up the fact he doesn’t initiate sex with her.
‘I had to ask myself why I was upset. It’s because the feelings aren’t there as much as I thought they would be,’ he said.
‘I’m not expressing the love you have for me. I’m not mirroring that back.’
‘Do you understand your words are really hurtful? You could say it a little bit nicer… You know where my feelings are,’ Jamie said.
‘I don’t think I was rude,’ Dave said, to which Jamie responded: ‘There is no sincerity or empathy in your voice. These are brutal words.’
Dave attempted to apologise for ‘not feeling as strong’ about his bride as she did, but she brushed him off saying: ‘I’m sorry that I have feelings for you.
‘If you’re going to treat me like this and you’re going to approach the situation like this, I’m sorry I had feelings for you.
‘That is not the Dave I’ve been married to. After everything, that’s how you’re going to approach this conversation?’
When Dave responded simply by saying that’s ‘just how he feels’, Jamie demanded he leave their apartment before she broke down in tears.
‘Who is that person? He just doesn’t even care. He’s not the person I know,’ she sobbed to producers.
‘Even if you don’t have feelings for me, you know how I feel about you and that’s how you’re going to approach it? What the f*** is wrong with him? That’s disgusting.
‘I don’t want to spend anymore time in this experiment with someone like that.
‘He’s worse than any of the others because he’s lied to me the whole time and he’s pretended to be someone he’s not.’
Things only got worse at the dinner party later that night as the couple arrived separately, leaving Jamie to cry with brides Awhina Rutene and Rhi Disljenkovic.
‘I don’t want to look at him. He makes me feel sick. The way we left this morning. I feel like I had more questions than answers,’ Jamie told producers.
‘You have just broken me. And after everything we’ve been through. Creating this partnership I thought I was going to carry through into my life.
‘The least you can do is try to sort it out. Try to apologise. Anything to make me feel like this wasn’t all bulls***.’
When the other couples put pressure on Dave to talk about what he feels for Jamie after weeks of claiming he wants a future with her, his answers left her in tears again.
‘I still care about her. It’s just a struggle at the moment,’ he said. ‘I don’t hate the girl’.
‘How are you expressing your feelings for me? You don’t tell me. You don’t show me. How do you think I’m going to feel? We’re so far in, Dave,’ Jamie said.
‘I’m not where you’re at. Why are you putting a timer on it? I take a long time.’
Jamie proceeded to break down yet again and sob out.
‘It’s not “tell me you love me”, it’s how far in we are,’ she wailed.
‘You don’t need to be in love with me to show up for me romantically. We’ve built three months together, Dave.
‘Three months and I’m planning a future with you and you’re telling me today those feelings haven’t progressed for you. When did you want to tell me that?’
After more back and forth, which saw Dave be backed into a corner and forced to defend himself, he and Jamie appeared to leave things on a hopeful note.
When groom Jeff Gobbels asked Dave if he wanted to be in a relationship with Jamie, he said: ‘Of course I want this to work.’
He then turned to his tearful bride and said: ‘You are so special to me. You know who I am. You really do. And this is a situation I’ve handled badly.
‘I really do care about you Jamie. I do want to fight for this.’
Jamie appeared ready to give him another shot, but wasn’t so easily swayed by the sentiment which came too late.
‘If you want to be with me, you need to prove it. I cannot carry this team anymore. It is your turn to pull your finger out of your a** if you want to be with me,’ she said.
Married At First Sight will return on Sunday at 7.00pm on Nine and 9Now.