Married At First Sight UK 2023 may be finished, but the cast may still be switching spouses.
Shona Manderson and Matt Pilmoor married Brad Skelly and Adrienne Naylor as part of the E4 series, but their marriages didn’t go as planned, and they’ve instead discovered love with each other.
Shona was first paired with Brad, and when they met as strangers on their wedding day, sparks sparked and they promptly exclaimed ‘I love you.’ Their relationship deteriorated after a few weeks of living together in a London flat.
Experts Paul C Brunson, Charlene Douglas, and Mel Schilling were worried and had to act after stressing that Brad’s conduct may become “dangerous.”
This followed after Brad, 27, called Shona, 31, ’emotionally immature,’ and admitted to ‘enabling’ his wife to become enraged.
Matt and Adrienne, who joined late in the season after Brad and Shona had already departed the experiment, fared significantly better. At the final commitment ceremony, the couple even stated that they would give things a go in the real world.
When left to their own ways, things swiftly went apart, and they split up before the reunion.
The newly single Shona and Matt ultimately met and formed a friendship over the series finale group dinner in June.
Their ‘instant vibe’ was clear, so they swapped numbers, and five weeks later they went on their first date. After two months Matt, 29, asked Shona, 31, to be his girlfriend with a bouquet of sunflowers.
‘We have a really healthy, happy, safe, fun, relationship – I really appreciate Matt so much, it’s what I deserve, we deserve each other,’ shared Shona.
She added to OK!: ‘I’m proud to be his girlfriend and it just works.’
She did, however, concede that her experience on MAFS made it difficult to believe Matt was telling the truth when he proclaimed his love. Brad claimed to adore Shona, but later conceded it may have been desire.
‘Matt looked at me and told me he loved me and I was like “I don’t believe you”.
‘He kept having to say it to me for a bit and then I was like “I love you too!”‘
‘Being together from the start would have been incredible but I think it happened this way around for a purpose,’ explained Matt.
‘It just works.’
They’ve kept their relationship a secret for over five months in order to avoid ruining the show, and they’re overjoyed to be ‘free.’
They celebrated with a merry date night at London’s Winter Wonderland, which is the major reason why everyone should get into relationships around the holidays. Of course, we jest (kind of).
Married At First Sight is available to watch on Channel 4.
