A Married at First Sight expert has hit back after a bride slammed the series.
This season of the E4 reality series has seen a new group of singles walk down the aisle to marry strangers.
One of them was 48-year-old Richelle from London, who was matched with 41-year-old project engineer Orson Nurse.
Although the couple believed they met their match on their wedding day, interactions between the pair quickly turned sour, with Orson left in tears after Richelle told him to ‘get over’ past heartache.
This week she went on to say ‘there’s a lot’ viewers were not seeing, before deleting her claims and turning off comments on social media.
However now expert Charlene Douglas has said she was ‘sad’ by some of Richelle’s comments.
‘I have to say with Orson and Richelle I think, even now, I’m not fully sure what that’s all about,’ she said.
‘If I’m honest I do feel like, if someone is still triggered by a past relationship, the kind thing to do would be to meet them where they are emotionally and to be there for them.
‘I don’t know if Richelle maybe saw other things in Orson that we weren’t privy to that kind of made her feel like, “This man isn’t very honest”,’ she added when speaking to The Sun.
She continued: ‘I didn’t see that. I saw in Orson someone that’s very kind, very honest, very transparent but we’re not with them 24/7 so I can’t be sure.
‘But it felt sad. I’m not going to lie, it did feel sad for me that Richelle made some of those comments.’
Before Richelle’s comments disappeared, Charlene also said she noticed the bride was ‘sticking to her guns with certain things’ but has also acknowledged that maybe she ‘could have said some things a bit differently’ as there were ‘definitely some shocking moments in that conversation’.
On Instagram this week, Richelle responded to a fan who asked: ‘Is there something we aren’t seeing between Richelle and Orson? That woman is so harsh on Orson and I do not see why.’
‘Yes, there’s a lot you’re not seeing behind tonight and previous edit that I will address to comments on this post…tomorrow!’ she had replied.
She later accused Orson of trying to recouple with another bride, adding: ‘People will see the truth. It’s a waiting game.’
It came after viewers were shocked seeing Richelle’s response to her husband speaking about past break-ups.
‘What do you think your boys are going [to think] when you’re sitting on TV crying about being cheated on five years ago?’ she said, referencing his friends.
She also questioned his ‘emotional resilience’.
Following the episode airing, he shared on social media: ‘I’m 100% gonna be an advocate for men being more vulnerable because we want that suicide rate to decrease rapidly.’
Although she left the experiment during the honeymoon, they decided to give things another go.
Married At First Sight UK continues tonight at 9pm on E4.