When audiences first met Claire Normarhas and Jesse Burford on Married At First Sight 2023, it was Jesse that stood out as the red flag. The marriage celebrant with a rock ‘n’ roll streak had a long list of ‘icks’ that would immediately turn him off a bride-to-be.
On the other hand, Claire was approaching the MAFS experiment with her vivacious personality and a drive to find ‘the one’ who could be her soulmate. Here’s everything you need to know about their journey–including ‘cheating scandal’–to their current relationship status.
Who are Claire Normahas and Jesse Burford from MAFS?
Claire Normahas is a 31-year-old Kindergarten Assistant from Victoria. She was raised in a “chaotic Greek household” and is known for her bright and chatty disposition. She says she’s looking for someone to ‘grow old with’ like her grandparents who are still happily married after their own arranged marriage many years previously.
Jesse Burford is a 30-year-old Marriage Celebrant from Perth. He officiates rock-style weddings and after seeing so much of other people’s love, he wants it for himself. Jesse is very big on that ‘initial spark’ and gets the ick easily, but once he’s in, he’s in.
The Wedding
Despite all of Jesse’s misgivings about who he would be paired with, he was immediately attracted to Claire, as she was to him. Once the vows were over and they got chatting, Jesse was taken aback by Claire’s penchant for astrology (astrology girls are one of his icks).
He decided to look past it and get to know her. “I think the best way forward is to try to respect her passion and try to change my boundaries,” he said.
The Honeymoon
Claire and Jesse were soon headed off on their honeymoon to the Whitsundays, but it turned sour when Jesse ‘shushed’ Claire’s chatter.
Claire was shocked by this and put her foot down about being treated like that.
This caused Jesse to reassess the way he was approaching the relationship. They briefly made up but it didn’t last long as Jesse told Claire her most annoying trait was “random comments about everything”, prompting her to go back to the room and start packing her bags, while crying.
The First Dinner Party
The pair ended up meeting before the first dinner, and settling their differences so they could walk in together. However, they spoke on the way there and ended up in another argument about Jesse’s behaviour, leaving Claire to walk in on her own.
Claire quickly got to telling the other MAFS guests about what had happened, garnering sympathy. The group eventually asked Jesse about his opinion and he bluntly said, “I would rather have a date with my toaster in the bathtub than have to listen to her speak.”
Moving In
Moving in didn’t change the bad energy between Jesse and Claire, but things took a twist when some of the fellow MAFS contestants decided to go on a ‘secret’ excursion to a pub. Jesse and Claire were there and Jesse noticed Claire getting close to another contestant, Adam. At one point they disappeared causing Jesse (who returned home alone) to demand Claire show him her phone.
Claire bustled against this, and the resulting argument led to Jesse moving out of their home.
The Commitment Ceremonies
At the commitment ceremony, the cheating allegations took new form, as Lyndall revealed that on the night of the pub Adam had told her, “Don’t go, you know that if you go, I’m gonna go home with Claire”. At this point, news of any actual physicality between Claire and Adam remained elusive.
After this episode, Claire sat Jesse down to apologise and admit that she had kissed Adam on that night out. “That is classic. I just knew it,” he said.
“I should’ve told you sooner and I’m sorry that I didn’t,” she said. “You don’t deserve that.”
The Grilling
At a later dinner party, Claire and Adam were grilled about their behaviour, and how it had hurt their spouses, Jesse and Janelle, respectively.
Claire came to the dinner prepared with a letter to give Jesse and a promise that she would put him first. However, the group gave her the cold shoulder, followed by a hot roast, laying into her about lying to her partner.
“I have no excuses for my behaviour,” she said. “It shouldn’t have happened and I’m genuinely really remorseful – and I’m really sorry.”
Janelle (Adam’s partner) was distressed by the situation. “I kissed him goodbye before he left,” Janelle said, getting upset. “And he had sex with me that night.”
In the end, Jesse said he had respect for Claire’s contrition. “That’s what owning your mistakes and giving a genuine apology will grant you,” he added. “A bit of leniency from the mob.” Claire gave Jesse her letter, and the pair ducked out together.
At a later commitment ceremony, Jesse admitted that the whole saga on top of his dating history had made him question if he was worthy of love. Claire continued to try to win him over, with the couple enjoying a squash game and Claire giving him a present to say sorry.
However, soon after, fellow contestant Harrison was getting in Jesse’s head, saying at another dinner party that Claire had told his wife Bronte that she wasn’t attracted to Jesse.
Claire said it wasn’t true, but Jesse couldn’t see past it.
“I know what it’s like when someone likes me, and we don’t have that,” Jesse said. “You like me because of the experiment, but in the real world which is what happened at the bar that night with Adam, that was you actually liking someone.”
Are Claire Normahas and Jesse Burford still together?
Unfortunately, this couple’s tumultuous journey led to them choosing to write ‘leave’ in their fifth commitment ceremony.
After Harrison stirred Jesse’s insecurities around Claire’s interest in him, he realised he wouldn’t be able to get past the cheating scandal. Claire also chose to write leave, saying she had stayed to try and repair the relationship, but it was clear that wouldn’t be happening.
Jesse admitted he wouldn’t have written leave if it hadn’t been for Harrison’s ‘truth bomb’ at the dinner party, but that ultimately his trust had been breached regardless.
Despite the MAFS experts hinting that maybe it wasn’t really over for the couple, Yahoo! reports that the two are no longer together after filming wrapped.
How do we know this? Well, apparently photos obtained by the publication showed Claire and Jesse arriving in separate vehicles to the reunion.
Since leaving, Jesse told the Daily Mail that production had a “super villain on a silver platter” in Claire, and yet they chose to give him a “villain edit”, while portraying her as an “angel”.
“I was shocked watching our relationship play out on screen. I remember thinking to myself, ‘I don’t have to worry one bit about if I’m going to be a villain, because [Claire] just said some crazy stuff,” he said.
He also said he told Claire after the cheating scandal that he wanted to leave, and yet she wrote stay.
“’Why couldn’t you honour me like that? Why did you make me stay and I just can’t shake that she was doing it to look after herself and it’s not just this random thought that’s in my head – there’s other things that happened that back that thought up,” he said.
So far, Claire has not broken her silence on the matter.
