Married at First Sight groom Clint Rice has accused the producers of Nine’s ratings juggernaut of manipulating his edit.
The 43-year-old business owner said that the show’s creators put words in his mouth so that viewers would believe he was ‘into’ his bride Lauren Hall after she had firmly ‘friend-zoned’ him.
The controversial pair left the show on Sunday, agreeing that there was no chance of a romance blossoming between them.
Clint has now claimed that during the couples’ retreat episode, MAFS editors had ‘dropped in’ dialogue from his wedding day, during which he could be heard saying there was a ‘spark’.
Clint’s remarks come after viewers saw the pro golfer step in to defend his wife, despite her earlier claiming to the other brides that there was ‘no spark’ between them.
‘So I watched back the dinner party after couples retreat, and when the voiceover came on to me sitting there with Lauren saying, “Yeah I definitely think there’s a spark there for me”, I was like, “Well, wait a minute, I don’t remember feeling that and I don’t remember saying it”,’ Clint told Yahoo Lifestyle on Monday.
‘And then I had a look back through some footage and I could see on the wedding day, that’s where I said that.’
Clint claims that this kind of editorial manipulation in TV is dubbed ‘Frankenbiting’, in which sound bites from one scene are ‘stitched’ into another scene out of context.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Nine for comment.
Elsewhere in the chat, he explained: ‘Because you can see these words get spoken literally three weeks prior, they pull it out and put it in when you’re sitting at the dinner table.
‘My mouth wasn’t actually moving, but people feed into the narrative because they see that audio come through…'[It’s] so hard to watch when that sort of thing comes out.’
Clint said that the edit made him look ‘foolish’ because it appeared he was feeling a spark while, for Lauren, their relationship was strictly friendship.
It comes after the controversial groom opened up about his relationship with Lauren following their dramatic exit from the experiment.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Clint revealed that they still keep in touch despite their turbulent journey on the reality show.
‘Loz is a great person, and she’s obviously burnt out from the show. She had a tough start with Eliot and being humiliated, then coming back in,’ he said.
Despite their challenges, Clint holds no ill will towards Lauren, acknowledging that she was navigating a tough emotional landscape after her first match with Eliot ended in disaster.
‘She definitely had a guard up, wondering if she was going to get humiliated again or be left with undelivered promises that would make her feel uncomfortable,’ he shared.
‘At the end of the day, she’s a good person who was in an environment where she wasn’t comfortable.’
Reflecting on their time in the experiment, Clint admitted that he and Lauren felt like outsiders within the group dynamic.
‘I think the group turned on us because they could see we didn’t want to hang out with them. They thought we were better than them, but that wasn’t the case. We just didn’t enjoy the yelling and raised voices,’ he explained.
Rather than engaging in the drama, the couple considered an alternative escape.
‘We actually wanted to get an Airbnb down the road, drink margaritas, and eat prawns and oysters,’ he laughed.
Clint also addressed the lack of screen time he and Lauren received, attributing it to the fact that they avoided unnecessary drama.
‘Lauren and I actually got along really well. We lived together for three or four weeks with no major issues,’ he said.
‘We agreed that if something came up, we’d talk about it privately over a couple of margaritas or a glass of red rather than airing it out at a dinner party. We weren’t going to throw each other under the bus for the sake of TV drama.’
As tensions with the group escalated, Clint and Lauren made the bold decision to walk away from the show before the final dinner party.
‘We just didn’t like the environment. Production tried everything to convince us to stay – even suggesting we turn up in tracksuits with popcorn at the final dinner party. In the end, we decided to have our own dinner party in our apartment with margaritas and champagne instead.’
The couple later negotiated their exit on their own terms.
‘We did our final commitment ceremony, walked out together, and left. Production tried to persuade us to stay, saying we’d get redemption at the reunion, but we were done.’
Now, watching the season unfold, Clint admitted it has been difficult to see how some of his fellow cast members are portrayed.
‘It’s disturbing to see how some people have been edited. Jacqui, for example, is a super intelligent and down-to-earth person, but she’s being made to look unstable.
It’s heartbreaking to see, especially knowing what she endured in her relationship with Ryan behind the scenes.’
With the season nearing its dramatic finale, Clint is looking forward to putting the experience behind him.
‘It was a whirlwind, but at the end of the day, I have no regrets. I walked away with some good friendships, and I know who the real people are.’