The third Married at First Sight dinner party hadn’t even started and a very intriguing rumour is already being flung around.
According to the promo for the episode, we’re being told that groom Bryce Ruthven had a girlfriend outside the experiment during filming.
While the majority of the dinner party is likely dedicated to this topic, we wanted to know if Ruthven, who is fake TV married to Melissa Rawson on the hit series, was really seeing another girl during filming.
In an interview with TV Week in March, bride Beck Zemeck said that Ruthven did indeed have a girlfriend on the outside.
“He was seeing a girl and his mate asked him if he wanted to get her a gift,” she said.
“He told me, in the gym, this information, along with telling me that he placed me first on the hottest/nottest little rating, as well as telling me that it would be easy enough to get to the end of the experiment with Melissa.”
Later, Ruthven denied any wrongdoing to the magazine. “It’s news to me,” he responded.
“I was only in the ACT for 12 weeks so I must have been having a good time,” he added. “To be honest, I know there’s articles and podcasts and other rubbish floating around but I’m just not reading it.”
Then, on a February episode of So Dramatic!, host Megan Pustetto confirmed the stories were true, explaining that one of Ruthven’s former colleagues had confirmed the story and his girlfriend’s name was Courtney.
“[Bryce] had a secret girlfriend the entire time during filming Married At First Sight, back in Canberra,” she reported.
“He lied to her and convinced her that he was just doing the show to further his career and he asked her to wait for him. She agreed. So then he kept her on the sly the entire time.
“All of Bryce’s friends knew about Courtney, even the ones who were at his TV wedding. Their relationship was not a secret.”
According to one of the guests from Ruthven and Rawson’s wedding, Jason Roses, Bryce told producers about Courtney during filming.
Speaking to TV Blackbox’s The Anj, Rob & Robbo Show, Roses confirmed that the footage was actually shown to the entire cast at the reunion.
“It was at the reunion, and they’ve basically said, ‘Bryce, if you think you’re telling the truth, this is what your friend had to say in secret.’”
