Married At First Sight star Ridge ‘Deece’ Barredo became the butt of his own April Fools joke on Tuesday, when he posted a ‘breakup’ announcement to Instagram against his partner Jade Pywell’s wishes.
Sharing an image from their on-screen MAFS wedding in 2024, the jovial prankster penned a short n’ sweet mock split announcement.
‘It is with great regret that Jade and I announce that we are no longer together,’ Ridge wrote.
‘We’ve decided that we are better off as friends. Please respect our privacy and decision x’.
In the next slide on his Stories, the 29-year-old shared a loved-up video of himself and Jade packing on the PDA beside a beach.
‘APRIL FOOLS FAM. Never letting this girl go,’ he captioned the clip with two heart-eyes emojis.
Taking to her own stories, Jade, 27, revealed she was ‘against’ Rydge making the fake breakup post.
The season 11 couple now live together on the Gold Coast along with Jade’s daughter Victoria, after psychiatric nurse Ridge made the move north from Sydney in May 2024.
It was something he promised Jade after they fell in love throughout their three months in the experiment.
Ridge’s sense of humour and Jade’s perception of his maturity was a source of concern for the MAFS bride towards the end of their time on the series.
‘I was against Ridge posting that we broke up as an April Fools, because I didn’t think it was funny,’ Jade captioned a mirror selfie posted on April 1, while wearing a form-fitting activewear set.
The bombshell brunette tilted her chin upwards in the photo, smirking slightly.
‘But [it] was funny seeing what girls tried to message him!’ she added in a shock twist.
Jade finished her caption with several laugh-crying and blowing kiss emojis as she passive aggressively teased the women who slid into Ridge’s DMs shortly after spying his fake breakup post.
It comes after Ridge pranked his girlfriend of one year with a fake proposal in January.
The affectionate couple could be seen in an Instagram video enjoying some time in the sun on the back of a boat together, when Ridge pretended to pop the question.
His elaborate prank began when he encouraged Jade to take a photo with him next to the edge of the boat.
She was already drenched with water as she posed with him while wearing a wet-suit pulled down to her waist to expose her bikini top.
Ridge then grasped her left hand in his and got down on one knee, leaving Jade to stare down at him in shock and glee as she believed he was proposing.
However, as the trickster looked up at her and pulled her in close, he suddenly shoved her into the water next to them.
Jade appeared to take the joke in good fun as she shared the video to her own Instagram Stories making light of the prank.
‘Sheesh. Harder than I thought trying to get a ring,’ she captioned the clip alongside an emoji with a single tear.
But while Jade didn’t appear to take offence, fans of the couple flocked to the comments to slam Ridge for making such a joke.
‘Awww that’s not fair u got to do it for real now x,’ one person wrote, as another said: ‘This is mean, Ridge.’
A third commented: ‘On no… this is not.’
‘Cruel not funny,’ added another.
‘Not deeeeece,’ one user wrote, referencing Ridge’s ‘deece’ catchphrase which means ‘decent’.