MAFS bride Holly Ditchfield is the latest star to speak out against the show.
She has claimed that she “felt dirty” and “had to sleep in bed with a man she had only known for 12 hours during their honeymoon in the Maldives.”
Holly, 32, appeared in the 2024 series and was married to Alex Henry, 28.
She told me There is no project yet podcast: ‘People must look at it and think, “Oh my god, you went to the Maldives,” listen, that’s not all,
‘I would never have paid all that money to go there. Because you’re on this random island.”
Host Bethany Wright asked if she was lonely, and she replied, “Absolutely! I had known him for less than 24 hours and I was on a 12 hour flight with him.
“It was crazy as hell.”
MAFS bride Holly Ditchfield has claimed the show ‘made her feel dirty’ for making her sleep in bed with a man she knew for just 12 hours on the show
Holly, 32, appeared in the 2024 series of the show and was married to Alex Henry
“And I don’t want to sound like I’m finishing the show, but to protect my own reasons why my own mental health was bad afterward.”
She continued, “Looking back on it now, it’s like being sold into a show to marry a man and sleep in bed with a man you don’t know. It makes you feel dirty.”
Daily Mail has contacted Channel 4’s press office for comment.
Holly and Alex split during the experiment and she later found love and is now expecting twins with her now fiancé Aaron Summers, who she met in 2025.
Aaron already has a daughter and son from two previous relationships.
Meanwhile, the show is currently on hiatus amid an external welfare investigation following a series of rape and sexual assault allegations by three former stars.
The E4 series faced calls for it to be axed following claims by BBC Panorama that two women were raped during filming, while a third woman said she was the victim of a non-consensual sex act.
The claims have been denied by the men involved.
Earlier this year it was also announced that a former participant had been arrested on suspicion of rape after the documentary was broadcast.
Currently, a series of MAFS UK, filmed from January to March this year, has yet to air, and the stars are reportedly hoping it will never air in the wake of the scandal.
Now, a new report claims the show won’t be returning “anytime soon.”
A source said The sun: ‘MAFS series 11 was supposed to air in September – as it has for the past three years – but won’t be returning anytime soon.
‘Channel 4 confirms broadcast dates for shows like Bake Off and Tempting Fortune for September, but there’s no MAFS.
Married At First Sight remains suspended amid an external Social Security investigation following a series of rape and sexual assault allegations by three former stars
The show faced calls to be axed following claims that two women were raped during filming (Shona Manderson, who claimed she was the victim of a non-consensual sex act, is pictured)
“It’s on ice until executives can determine what, if anything, can be salvaged if the report is returned.”
Channel 4 has been approached for comment by the Daily Mail.
MAFS was hosted by Paul C. Brunson, Charlene Douglas and the late Mel Schilling, who died in March.
In July it was announced that a former MAFS UK participant had been arrested on suspicion of rape.
The Metropolitan Police said: ‘This relates to an ongoing investigation led by the Met Police.
“He has since been released on bail while investigations are ongoing.”
Lawyers for CPL, the production company behind MAFS UK, said after the claims first emerged in May that the welfare system was the ‘gold standard’ and that it acted appropriately in all these cases.
Channel 4 boss Priya Dogra initially refused to apologize after Panorama aired, but has since said she is ‘deeply sorry’.
The broadcaster immediately canceled all episodes of one of its most popular programs.
The Met Police have previously urged ‘anyone who believes they have been a victim of sexual assault’ after appearing on the show to get in touch.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said he was “extremely concerned”, adding: “I think it is very likely that there will be a referral to the police and it will be a police matter for them to investigate.”
Media Minister Ian Murray met Channel 4 leadership to discuss the scandal.
The claims aired on the Panorama show – and which are not necessarily linked to the arrest – include those made by Shona Manderson, who waived her anonymity and claimed Bradley Skelly engaged in a non-consensual sex act while they filmed the Channel 4 show, a claim he denies.
Shona, who appeared on the show in 2023, later discovered she was pregnant and had an abortion, although she admits she is unsure whether the alleged incident made her pregnant.
She said she “completely lost her light” when she appeared on the show.
Bradley said he understood his on-screen wife had consented that night and categorically denied “any allegations of sexual misconduct” or that he was “controlling.”
Shona was one of three MAFS UK contestants who claimed to Panorama that they were victims of sexual misconduct on the show. Two women claim they were raped; a third claims to have been sexually abused.
Meanwhile, a program participant, who did not want to be identified, accused her husband of raping her and threatening her with an acid attack, and has attempted to take legal action against CPL.
‘Lizzie’, as she was called to maintain her anonymity, said her partner often lost his temper when the cameras were not on them.
Sex, she said, quickly turned violent and left her bruised even after she “kept saying stop,” she told the BBC.
“He said if I told anyone what happened, he would ask someone to throw acid at me,” Lizzie said.
Describing an alleged assault, she said: “We were in our apartment, on the couch, and he tried to have sex with me. And I kept saying no, that I didn’t want to do it.
“But he kept saying, ‘You can’t say no, you’re my wife.’ And he did it anyway.’
Lawyers for CPL told Panorama that Lizzie did not say the “can’t say no” comment to her team and that the “sour” comment was referred to as a casual comment and not a threat.
CPL took action as soon as Lizzie said she felt unsafe, the lawyers added.
A second unidentified woman, named Chloe, claims she was raped by her husband before the broadcast, although Channel 4 aired her episodes despite her telling the channel and producers.
“He grinned and climbed on top of me, moving my leg… By then I had really given up and I just didn’t want him to get mad at me when the cameras came,” she said.
“I just lay there and stared out the window.”
After filming ended, she told the show’s psychiatrist and alerted CPL, who then went to Channel 4.
When Chloe complained to the broadcaster, she did not receive a response until the series was on air. Lawyers for CPL told the BBC it was following welfare protocols.
Both men involved deny the allegations, Panorama added.
MAFS sees singles being matched by a panel of experts and then entering into non-legally binding marriages after meeting at the altar for the first time.
Billed as a “social experiment,” the show follows the couples’ every move as they go on their “honeymoon” and then move in together.
The boss of Ofcom, the media regulator, said in the wake of the scandal that it would tighten its guidelines around reality shows if necessary.
A senior source with knowledge of the show said last month that the allegations were likely to end it in Britain, although they are still being made in almost 30 countries around the world.
‘It’s a big format for Channel 4, but it’s not like Top Gear, Strictly Come Dancing or MasterChef. Channel 4 may lose out. The days of throwing strangers together are over,” says a Daily Mail insider.
“This type of programming has long promised a route to fame. It now threatens to expose the less glamorous truth that spectacle has always had a human price.”
The expert, who has worked in television for decades, said the cost of the MAFS scandal to production companies would be enormous.
They added: ‘This deep crisis will obviously result in enormous change. For years, reality TV has sold itself as a democratic route to fame: regular people elevated through personality, romance, drama or delusion.
“But it will change insurance, legal oversight, casting, psychological screening, duty of care and broadcaster tolerance for formats that rely on emotional combustion.”
Dame Caroline Dinenage said the premise of the dating show, which sees single people ‘marry’ strangers they first meet on their wedding day, was ‘horrific’ and she was ‘not surprised’ by the allegations of sexual assault.
Dame Caroline said on BBC Radio 4: ‘The program was clearly deeply shocking.
‘What probably surprised me most was how little surprised I was by what it revealed, since I suppose, as you say, that these are couples who get married without having met each other before, and then immediately have to start living life as a married couple.
“They go on their honeymoon, share a bed, and in this kind of bubble of intimacy under the glare of a TV camera.
“In the cold light of day it’s really quite gruesome, isn’t it?”
Asked whether the show’s format is ‘guaranteed’ to cause problems, Dame Caroline said: ‘The whole format of the program is that you set up an artificial bubble where there is almost an expectation that people will become intimate with each other.
“And I think people probably feel like participants almost feel obligated to do that.” The marriages for the ‘social experiment’ are not legally binding and cameras follow the couples’ every move as they go on their ‘honeymoon’ and then move in together.
