Sposate a prima vista Le “spose” del Regno Unito affermano di essere state violentate dai mariti sullo schermo

**Two women have told the BBC they were raped during the filming of one of Channel 4’s biggest shows, Married at First Sight UK, while a third has described an allegation of a non-consensual sex act**

Bold social experiment into why most of the western world shunned arranged marriages that gave power over women’s bodies to men they didnt know. Spoiler: proves the reason why we dont do it anymore.

Some absolutely abhorrent things have occurred here.

One man threatened his “on-screen wife” with an acid attack if she reported him. She reported this to the producers, who did not consider it a threat:

>They said Lizzie did not tell CPL about her partner having told her that she “can’t say no” to him, and that the acid-throwing remark had been reported as a passing comment, not a threat.

I would love to see them explain how one can un-threateningly say this:

>”He said that if I told anybody what had happened, that he would get someone to throw acid at me,” she said.

According to Rape Crisis England and Wales, around 40% of rapes are committed against the rapist’s partner or ex-partner. This equates more than 80 a day, based on how many are reported to the police. These cases may seem shocking but they’re actually somewhat representative of the most common type of rape in the UK.

The show producers were clearly not doing enough to protect these women. All three of the women written about here presented enough to the producers to cause significant concern, and clearly not enough was done.

>Channel 4 said all the allegations are “wholly uncorroborated and disputed”.

Ooft, that is a rough defensive argument to be making about these kind of allegations.

Not that this *didn’t* happen, but that it’s *uncorroborated.* Who, exactly, are they hoping is going to corroborate this?

I hope the people responsible for this show aren’t let off for what they put these women through.

But I hope they don’t only look at this issue relating to women.

The show absolutely also failed some of the men in earlier seasons and pushed them into abusive situations, bullied them into sex they didn’t want to have etc that was also coercive / sexual assault.

It’s mind blowing that this show has been able to keep running with how they treat both the women and men.

Should be immediately pulled from airwaves and other similar shows should get the axe as well.

Then Channel 4 should pay compensation to the victims and the producers should be sacked.

All of these gross social experiment reality shows need to stop tbh, not just MAFS but all of these barrel scraping exploitative shows that c4 seem to love churning out

Did nobody making the show anticipate this happening?

I have thought, since first encountering the concept, that it was insufferably and irredeemably stupid. Given my first and only encounter with the concept was being tuned in to Channel 4 5 minutes before Rick and Morty starts, that should tell us all something about HOW insufferably and irredeemably stupid.

I fooking hate reality tv ffs what a mess. My heart goes out to those poor women.

I’m shocked but not surprised by this to be honest. I was invited in another Channel 4 dating show by a producer who was recruiting at my old uni. I won’t. name the show, and thought nothing like this happened to me, there was a real safeguarding issue to put it lightly.

I was expecting to go on a weird but hopefully fun date. I was a bit lonely at the time after a bad breakup and jumped at the chance to perhaps be matched with someone nice.

Instead on the day I found myself being pressured into stuff I felt really uncomfortable with by the production crew. This included being asked really sexually inappropriate stuff on camera by producers and being pressured into getting intimate with the person on the date (including touching them), all of which I refused.

They took us to a pub that evening and drinks just kept arriving every few minutes at the table and we were asked to drink them for ‘shot continuity’ but in reality they were trying to get us drunk, and we both had no idea after a while how much we had consumed (and I’d be shocked if this wasn’t a tactic used when filming MAFS to get ‘good TV’). After filming I was then just left drunk late at night at a random train station when I was promised they would drive me home.

As for the promised aftercare – well they did nothing. They didn’t even reach out after the airing, even after I got a lot of abuse from people online which I am sure they were monitoring. I ended up in a dark place after the show aired and just wish I’d at least had some support from them.

I should add this was a ‘wholesome’ dating show on prime time and not a like a sex box or naked attraction where you would expect it to be more risqué.

I put a complaint in two years ago with Channel 4 after the Russel Brand stuff, which they never followed up. I told them my experience (including more bad stuff I don’t want to share here) and told them I was worried about other contestants having similar experiences to me on their shows or being exploited. And also that the production companies they use have predatory people working for them and use unethical practices (all in Channel 4’s name).

I am just so horrified these women had to go through this and I really hope they get the justice they deserve – and I really worry this is the tip of the iceberg.

The only accurate way to describe this show and it’s various franchises across the world is “televised bullying”.

I could not watch more than 3 episodes because it made me very uncomfortable the way abusive behaviour is accepted and even encouraged. It is blatantly manipulated for entertainment purposes, and it’s clear that they mismatch couples on purpose or carelessly to create conflict.

It should be taken off the air for so many reasons including this one.

[removed]

The whole premise of the show is pathetic. And it invites creeps to proclaim we are married so let’s do it!

i actually was a runner on this show for a bit and all i’m going to say is that after a certain point pretty much all of the higher ups were drinking “special coffees”

Also i would often come across a lot of the male contestants acting very very creepy in the dressing rooms

I used to work in welfare for reality TV dating shows like this, and left because the “welfare” teams are lip service and don’t have any actual power. I expressed concerns for contributors safety and wellbeing multiple times when they were living in environments they were uncomfortable in and wanted to leave. I got the same answers back every time: make them stay.

I was there to make them feel safer, not actually provide safeguarding. Which also, I realized in hindsight, put me in danger. It’s a toxic industry: desperation to please commissioners with good storylines makes people do terrible things, I’ve seen it first hand. I’m glad it’s being called out and hope it continues.

Never a social experiment. Just a reality show for people wanting to be famous.

I think something important that was briefly touched on in the Panorama show was the way the production cultivate an environment that makes its contributors feel detached from reality. Their phones are taken from them, they’re locked in small spaces with so-called “story producers” pushing whatever narrative the executives have decided they want. So if they want a loved-up storyline, they’ll push it. Welfare producers (I used to be one), are often shouted down by story producers who just want to progress their narrative. Productions don’t care about contributor welfare, they just don’t. Contributors often come out of these situations feeling confused about how things played out because things have been so manipulated, not just by their partners but by the teams around them.

I watched the TV series with Shona. She was very visibly obsessed with him, adoring and saying she was falling in love. Bradley definitely violated the agreement but the act of penetrative sex was consensual.  Therefore,  I am not sure if is rape. They then stayed together. Although it is reality TV, behind closed doors what you do is your responsibility.