Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What controversy surrounds the upcoming season of Married At First Sight Australia?
Hello and welcome back to the Maths Money Podcast with me, Joshua Fox, and in news that'll surprise none of you, the upcoming 2026 season of Married at First Sight has now hit its first big controversy just two weeks into production.
So a group of women have united in an effort to get one of the new grooms kicked off the new season with several of them claiming to have some personal history or past with him. And this could become quite damaging and the situation is a difficult one for all involved to navigate.
So this, what I'm gonna call a movement was started publicly by a woman named Monica on TikTok who two days ago shared this video.
It is really concerning that the maths producers have not done their research. And I'm saying this because I have many women reaching out to me, sharing receipts on this maths 2026 groom. All I can say is the maths producers have not followed through on what they promised. And because some women are sharing their concern for their safety.
I need to be very careful with what I share because I do not want to put anyone in an uncomfortable situation. But I also want to ensure that we don't have another season like last, like the last season, because that was absolutely putrid, the behavior. from some of the men on there was absolutely disgusting. I will be sharing these shared experiences once I have all the receipts to back them up.
Since then, there's comments from other women like, yeah, I dated this guy too, he shouldn't be on the show. Several people are saying they've personally emailed production company Animal Shine Australia, who make maths urging them to remove him.
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Chapter 2: Who is leading the movement to remove the groom from the show?
Me, as a podcaster slash journalist, I've had two different people now message me from burner accounts saying, get him off the show. I know other journalists have received similar messages, but... So far, like I haven't seen anyone with evidence of any wrongdoing. And this is again, why the whole thing is kind of difficult.
And again, just from what I've seen at the time of recording this podcast right now, everything is just like mostly vague statements and comments alluding to some kind of bad behavior from this person in his past. But again, I'm yet to see anyone make any actual accusation of something specific.
And the groom is yet to respond to any of this and I doubt he will because I don't think production and the show's publicist will want him adding fuel to the fire.
And that's why I suppose until there is some kind of tangible and irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing or he does address anything he's being accused of, I personally don't feel comfortable naming him in this podcast because as of right now, all of this feels...
quite one-sided and i do think that media like myself we have a real responsibility to remain unbiased and you're probably wondering well why am i even bringing this up on this podcast and firstly it's because that tiktok is getting so much traction that it kind of has to be addressed because everyone's asking me about it and then secondly there is like a wider point i want to get to in this about i don't want to say cancel culture just
More about how things like this roll out and what it means from a media point of view. So I remember my first ever job as a journalist on a weekly magazine in the UK.
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Chapter 3: What concerns have been raised about the groom's past?
I was about 22 years old and the editor said to me once, and I'll never forget this, behind every celebrity is a bitter ex. And I'm not saying that is the case here at all, but the lesson the editor was teaching me was like a reminder that as a journalist, whenever someone is in the public eye, there will always be someone they know or want to try to tear them down for whatever reason.
And I remember the editor taught me that when a guy in the UK had just become very famous, very fast on, I think it was maybe The X Factor or one of those shows. And he was like the heartthrob and every woman was obsessed with him. And then at the magazine I worked at, we received all these emails one weekend from like an ex of his.
saying how horrible and undeserving he was and how he cheated on her and just you know he's not a good a good guy and me as the fresh-faced junior writer who just got fucking promoted from the intern I was the one who received those emails and I printed them and I take them into conference like guys look at this and we all spoke about it and I was like this is crazy like we got to do this on the cover everyone's going to be so shocked and then
The editor in conference and for context, conference is that what you do every Monday when the whole magazine sits down and you kind of plan what you're doing that week, what's going to be the cover, what's going to be the features, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, so in that conference, the editor was like, Josh, have they got any evidence of a single claim? I was like, no.
And he was like, has the guy responded? And I was like, no. And then he was like, well, until any of those things happen, we are not touching this and no other media will
And the editor told me how often in cases like this, an ex or someone will have sent the same message I got to every other magazine and newspaper because they just wanted someone to do something negative on this person they personally didn't like. And also if you think, well, that's obvious, Josh, you should have knew those things before talking about it in conference.
Bear in mind, I never trained as a journalist. I barely finished school and my career just kind of happened. It was accidental.
and in this case the editor of that magazine found me on social media said hey do you want to come down be an intern for like two weeks and just help us with a bit of like youtube strategy at a time when everyone was going digital and like i impressed them so much that they kind of just offered me a job on the spot and the only job they had was like junior writer junior journalist so
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Chapter 4: How have producers responded to the accusations against the groom?
And I was like, well, I've never studied. I didn't go to uni. And they were like, oh, that's all right. We'll just teach you to be a journalist as you go. But yeah, back to the point. I always remember the editor saying that. And that was 11 years ago now.
And of course, as people constantly get famous still, like, you know, the same thing is constantly happening with people from their past trying to tear them down or share stories or reveal the truth about them. And I suppose what I'm trying to say is it doesn't matter anymore if
A magazine like I used to work at or a website or the media touch a story or not like that because these days there's social media and people on social media don't follow the same defamation laws or need evidence of anything really.
Because anyone can just go online, say anything about anyone, and before you know it, a million people have watched that, and a reputation can be ruined within seconds. And I am not saying that's what's happening here with the maths dude, and, you know, it's just some bitter exes...
talking shit about him like i'm not saying that at all i do not know this guy i don't know anything about him he could be an absolute dickhead and these women are right in wanting him removed and he should be removed and as we know maths does have a history of casting some very questionable people
Or this guy could be like lovely and genuine and he just happens to have pissed off a few people in his past who are now coming together. And again, I suppose the point I'm trying to make in this podcast is until there's evidence or something solid to go off. and make our assumptions on anything like this. We should all try and remain somewhat impartial.
And I am all for believing victims always. I think how I covered domestic violence on this podcast earlier this year shows my stance on all of those things. And I'm all for holding shows like Married at First Sight to account when they do.
platform people they know they should never have platformed but again a situation like this is just difficult for everybody involved and for what it's worth and it does pain me to say this because as you know I love to call out the producers and highlight their failures and negligence in things but I have been told by several sources that this year they did actually become a lot more thorough with the background checks before casting anyone on the show after a
what happened last season and what that entailed exactly like these checks I don't know but regarding this dude yesterday I was kind of doing my own little background looking to him and I spoke to the team at SoSydney who you guys may follow and they report on maths a lot and have pat pictures of the weddings.
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Chapter 5: What is the significance of the TikTok video in this controversy?
He's been on it filming for what, a week or two weeks. And now they've got people emailing them, urging them to remove him. And from their side, production, they ticked all of their boxes. They found nothing. He impressed them.
And unless there is now some huge compelling evidence of wrongdoing, I personally don't think production will take any notice of these women on TikTok or the people complaining to remove him. Because again, as far as they're concerned, they ticked all their boxes of background checks. And Yeah, like I'm talking in circles now, but the whole thing is hard.
And I've seen people say before that producers shouldn't cast someone on a show like this unless they speak to at least two of their exes to find out what they're really like, you know, in a relationship, which is a good idea in theory, but also they couldn't do that because of like how confidential they keep the casting of these shows.
And, you know, we all know that those exes, if they were approached by producers being like, hey, what's Dave like? You know, you're used to that. And was he a good guy, bad guy? Those exes would obviously then go blabbing and names would leak before weddings happened and it would spoil the premise of the show because people would see who they're going to be matched with.
And anyway, yeah, I'm rambling now. Sorry about that. But yeah, this episode is for the people messaging me, asking about that TikTok. I will report more in this when and if there's more to report. But as I said, right now, I'm kind of trying to stay impartial and balanced with any reporting. See ya.
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