Married At First Sight groom Ryan Donnelly has spoken out about his turbulent relationship with bride Jacqui Burfoot.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, the project manager, 36, admitted their relationship finally reached breaking point during Teejay Halkias and Beth Kelly’s wedding after a series of dramatic incidents.
Ryan described watching back Monday’s episode as a ‘traumatising, hilarious, nostalgic, and drama-filled’ experience.
‘I was already reeling from the whole rap sheet thing in the morning,’ he said.
‘I didn’t want to carry that energy through, but then as soon as we sat down at the ceremony, it was lecture time. I was like, “are you kidding me?”
Ryan admitted that the wedding reception quickly became a disaster, and he later apologised to Beth and TJ, though he wasn’t sure if Jacqui had done the same.
Reflecting on the moment Jacqui confronted him with a list of grievances, Ryan admitted it was a shock.
‘I started off that morning full of hope, faith, and optimism, and then I sat down to see my wife furiously typing away, ready to unleash a list of all the things she’d been holding onto. I was disgusted.’
Despite feeling blindsided, Ryan tried to keep the peace at the reception.
However, he quickly realised Jacqui had impossibly high expectations.
‘She just expects and expects,’ he explained.
‘Rather than going with the flow and getting to know me as a person, it was all about, “This is what I want, this is what I deserve, and I’m not settling for anything less.”‘
He continued: ‘Her standards are stratospheric. I wasn’t the blonde, clean-shaven, six-foot-four guy in finance she clearly wanted.’
Betrayal over Jeff messages
The drama escalated when Ryan learned that Jacqui had been secretly messaging fellow groom Jeff.
‘I had a mouthful of food at the time when I heard it. I was in shock. I thought, “Are you serious?” Then I tried to process it all, but it was just a sensory overload,’ he recalled.
Ryan acknowledged that he felt for Jeff’s bride, Rhi, who also felt betrayed by the messages.
‘Good on Rhi for speaking up. But at the same time, I was trying to preserve my own marriage through all this chaos.’
After the explosive revelation, Ryan and Jacqui ended the night in separate apartments.
‘The separation at that point wasn’t just healthy, it was necessary. I had so many voices in my head—what just happened? Is there hope for this relationship? How do we salvage this?’
Jacqui wants out—but does she mean it?
The following night, Jacqui declared she wanted to leave the experiment entirely.
‘That threw me. There was so much turbulence, and I couldn’t tell if she really meant it or if she’d turn up the next day with a completely different attitude. It was impossible to get a handle on her,’ he said.
Ryan also addressed Jacqui’s erratic behaviour, saying, ‘It’s a pattern. I was blindsided and horrified quite a few times throughout the experiment.’
When asked whether Jacqui was playing up for the cameras, Ryan hesitated.
‘That’s such a hard question. She came out on her alternate [Instagram] page and admitted she was playing it up a little bit, but in the moment, I took everything at face value. I lived it, breathed it, and experienced it. My heart got broken a couple of times.’
Eliot’s shock return shakes up the dinner party
Looking ahead to the upcoming dinner party, Ryan teased more chaos, particularly with the return of controversial groom Eliot.
‘That was one of the best-kept secrets from the show. When Eliot and the others rocked up, we were shook.’
Ryan hinted at potential redemption for Eliot, despite his previous exit.
‘The guy skipped out and bailed. There are non-negotiables in relationships, but he didn’t even give Lauren [Hall] a chance. He’s going to come under fire for that, but who knows—maybe we’ll see a different side to him.’
More drama to come
As for what viewers can expect from Ryan and Jacqui at the dinner party, he didn’t hold back.
‘It wouldn’t be a dinner party without Jacqui and me being cross-examined and confusing the hell out of everybody.’
With tensions reaching boiling point and more twists on the horizon, MAFS fans won’t want to miss what’s next.
Married At First Sight continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Nine