Amea May has issued an apology ‘to Australia’ for being the ‘blonde’ and ‘petite’ woman who went on a date with Married At First Sight groom Tim Gromie and made him believe he could set his famously high standards.
The beauty influencer, 32, posted a series of videos detailing her interactions with the now infamous PE teacher, who exited the experiment with his bride Katie Johnstone on Sunday night.
‘I am actually one of the sad saps who went on a date with this man who thinks he is God’s gift to women, and if you’re wondering, he’s not,’ she began the first video.
Amea said she ‘barely recognised’ Tim when she saw a meme of him on her social media last week. ‘But I barely recognised him when I actually met him for the date as well.’
‘He gave me the ick the whole time and you could just tell that he thought very, very highly of himself.’
Amea, who runs Melbourne lash studio and brow bar Dear Lashes in Surrey Hills, is now engaged to be married and said she was ‘so embarrassed’ to admit she had ‘hooked up’ with Tim in September 2019.
The beauty blogger said that she had just come out of a rough break up at the time and came across Tim after ‘going through the attractive guys’ [on the dating apps] ‘really quickly.’
‘So, you start to go for the guys who maybe are just not good at taking photos,’ she said. ‘You think, I’ll give it a go, maybe they look better in real life.
‘Also, I’m not a b***h so I’ll give a chance to a medium-ugly guy.’
Tim – who described himself as being too nice in an early episode of MAFS – has been lambasted by viewers for turning down his bride on their wedding day for not being his ‘usual type’.
The 38-year-old said his type is ‘blonde, or brunette,’ ‘petite’, and ‘short’.
On their honeymoon, Tim also told Katie he’d ‘put the blinds down,’ when the social enterprise owner made a joke about running around naked.
Amea confirmed recent reports that Tim is currently active on dating apps, and has been using them since leaving the show.
‘I have seen what he is sharing now as his current Tinder picture, and that is what he had, back when I met him at least five years ago,’ she said.
‘Even then, the photo was very outdated,’ she continued.
‘But I gave this man the benefit of the doubt because he was a teacher and I feel like teachers are usually nice and trustworthy.’
A spokeswoman for Tinder Australia told Daily Mail that Tim’s behaviour would be defined in the app’s current ‘Dating Dictionary’ as ‘kittenfishing’.
‘Kittenfishing typically refers to someone presenting an overly polished, younger or slightly misleading version of themselves online,’ local dating expert Sera Bozza said.
After meeting Tim in person, Amea said she quickly got the dreaded ‘ick.’
‘I can endure a coffee date with most people and I had no plans to see him again after that.’
Much to her own horror, after Amea’s initial TikTok videos racked up 82,000 and 205,000 views respectively – the influencer went through her old messages and discovered she’d actually slept with Tim.
She showed a screenshot of a message sent to her friend on 14 September 2019 after the encounter.
‘He’s not very affectionate unless he’s in a relationship. No hug, no kiss goodbye. Gone so quick, I wish everyone was like this,’ she had written.
Amea also showed a direct message from Tim, which was sent to her on Instagram: ‘Hey was fun last night if you wanted to again.’
‘When he tried to see me again, I was not interested and I told him that,’ she continued, saying Tim was ‘very adamant.’
Amea’s description of Tim’s persistence closely mirrors that of OnlyFans model Brooke-Emily Simmons, who shared the text messages she received from Tim with Daily Mail Australia.
‘All I could picture any time he was trying to convince me to hook up with him, was him busting out of those skinny jeans,’ Amea said.
‘Those skinny jeans could not contain this man. I am not one to go for the fat shaming route, but we’ve all seen what he’s had to say to the whole of Australia.’
She then showed the profile photo she had swiped right on when she encountered Tim on Tinder. In it, the he looks noticeably slimmer and younger, with Amea saying he was ‘unrecognisable.’
Daily Mail has reached out to Amea for comment.
Married At First Sight continues Monday at 7.30pm on Channel Nine and 9Now