Married At First Sight UK is back for what promises to be another explosive series – and viewers are already complaining to the show’s E4 producers about their handling of one bride in particular.
The reality dating programme returned for a fresh series as another batch of brides and grooms were married at, um, first sight as they said ‘I do’ straight after saying hello.
And on Monday night’s first episode, Trans bride Ella – the first transgender bride ever on the series – broke down in tears as she told the fellow hens she met at the start of the show that she had a secret, but she wanted to be the one to tell her groom about it.
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She told the others: “I find it very hard to talk about my family.”
“I deliberately didn’t want to answer. I don’t want to sound cryptic but… I want to have the chance to tell my husband.”
Ella, who is 29 and from Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, then told viewers, in a separate piece to camera, what it was all about. She said: “When I was about 14 my mum came to sit on my bed and she asked me ‘do you want to be a girl?’
“I said, no mum I am a girl.”
(Image: E4)
“My mum gave birth to a little boy and I transitioned.
“My parents didn’t understand it in the beginning but nor did I. They have accepted me now and we have an unbreakable bond.
“I can’t explain why my family and me are so close without saying I am trans,” she then told the viewers at home.
(Image: E4)
At the end of the episode, Ella was seen marrying Nathanial and then having to tell him after the ceremony.
Nathaniel, 36, from Manchester, is an events marketing manager who appeared on Geordie Shore.
She said: “Honestly I don’t know how this is going to go, but I’m so scared of being rejected.”
Viewers all threw their support behind Ella, but were concerned that the revelation was being treated ‘like a bombshell’ and said surely her husband will already have been told.
@_laura_0_O said: “THE PARTNER KNOWS SHES TRANS! Gosh, producers told him beforehand. Let it be”
@osmondmania said: “This was touching! I wouldn’t have been able to tell she was trans if I didn’t know! #MAFSUK”
@charlotte_x91 said: “I’m pretty sure they know Ella is trans right? I knew as she walked in the room. Why they making out they don’t know?! It just makes them look stupid by lying before even they’ve even got up the aisle”
@neonfarfalla said: “See a few people are asking whether Ella will tell her husband she’s trans before hand. How? She meets him at the ceremony. Also does it matter if they get on #MAFSUK”
@jodieportugal said: “whoever Ella is matched with on #MAFSUK they would have posed the question, of if they were accepting of a transgender individual, so they at the alter knew it was a possibility”
@agneeepon said: “The transphobia in the hashtag is pretty grim. How are people not understanding that they will match Ella with someone like Nathaniel, who has clearly stated he is open to date anyone? Very weird to be very very angry over this situation #mafsuk”
@trashtv7 said: “More power to Ella but I don’t understand why they’re making it seem like she’s dropping a bombshell. Her husband knows & called her beautiful”
Married At First Sight UK returns on Tuesday at 9pm on E4 and on Channel 4’s catch up service which used to be called 4OD but now is just Channel 4 apparently.
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