Married At First Sight is one of those shows that only continues to rise in notoriety every year, for all the wrong reasons. With each season more outrageous than the last, viewers are often waiting with bated breath to see what kind of scandal is going to happen next, and this year has certainly delivered them in spades.
An ongoing feud between two brides, Domenica and Olivia has turned nothing short of nasty. With the two women seemingly fighting about anything and everything, to the horror of everyone. And, while MAFS sometimes feels like an alternate universe with no grounding in reality, it’s important to remember that the contestants are still being held to societal standards (even if it doesn’t feel like it at times).
Below, everything you need to know about the two biggest scandals from this season of MAFS and their real-world implications.
Glass Smashing Incident
You know what Dom, I’m sick of hearing you yell all the f**king time!” Olivia yelled. “I’m sick of your voice yelling all the f**king time! I’m bored of your voice! I’m f**king bored! It’s all I hear all the time! I’m losing my mind! I hear you yelling all the f**king time! I go to bed, I hear you yelling in your room! I’m sick of it!”
“So my voice isn’t okay?” Domenica asked. “Is she f**king serious? No, no, no, no, no, my entire f**king life I’ve been told my voice is not good enough!”
Domenic then proceeded to shatter her wine glass in a fit of rage, to the horror of everyone at the table. If you’re wondering why the comments about Domenica’s voice were particularly triggering for her, it stems back to her migrant culture and feeling insecure about her Italian accent while living in a predominantly Caucasian country.
“For those of you who don’t understand why Dom was basically stunned because of Olivia the oppressor’s comment let me break it down for you. Children of migrants, have dealt with been told our voices are not good enough by white people all our lives,” one user wrote on Twitter.
“Olivia has never encountered a non-eastern suburbs voice and it shows,” said another.
In the fallout, many viewers called for Domenica to be removed from the series for her aggressive behaviour. 2018 MAFS contestant condemned the behaviour, writing on Instagram, “Disgusting and if that’s ok then we have sunk to a low !! What about if glass went in someone’s eyes? I hope none support this behaviour.”
In an interview with Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa, Domenica said that she “100%” regretted her decision to smash the glass. “I wish I’d never broken the glass. That [was] never my intention,” she said. “I never wanted to do that. It was it was really like I had reached my boiling point. And I think everyone does have their breaking point and that was mine,’ she said.
Nude Photo Leak
Following the glass incident, it wasn’t long before yet another scandal erupted which rocked the entire show. In the fallout of their fight, Olivia said she “googled” her now-nemesis Domenica and stumbled upon her OnlyFans page. The important thing to note, is that all content on this service lies behind a paywall, so it’s not possible to access anything publicly (or freely).
After discovering the nude photo, Olivia proceeded to share it with the entire group, which caused the issue to be flagged at dinner, with Jack (Domenica’s onscreen husband).
“I’m aware — I don’t really care,” Jack responded. “Who cares. I’ve been aware of this from week one or two. I think what’s more concerning is how is it circulating?”
Fellow bride Tamara seemingly sided with Olivia, telling Domenica, “If you decide to put something like that out there, you have to own it. You have to deal with the repercussions and these are the repercussions — people are gonna talk about it and show each other those kinds of photos, it’s what happens in the real world.”
Domenica defended herself, explaining that she has no issue with the photo existing online, but does have an issue with the group sharing it amongst themselves behind her back.
“The issue I’ve got here is I don’t know how you thought that was any of your business to spread that around. If people wanted to Google me, they could Google me. But you clearly sent that — and that’s gossip,” Domenica said.
“I just mentioned it. It didn’t come with any malice or judgment or anything. No judgment girl, it’s 2021, you can do what you want with your body,” Olivia replied.
Understandably, the issue has caused quite a stir as it raised issues not only of body shaming, but more concerningly, potential revenge porn.
Per the New South Wales Crimes Act, revenge porn, known as “image based abuse”, is the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of individuals taken in circumstances in which a reasonable person would reasonably expect to be afforded privacy without their consent. If a person is found guilty of doing this, they could face a maximum of three years imprisonment, and/or an $11,000 fine.
Given that OnlyFans content lies behind a paywall and part of their subscription model prohibits any content being distributed further than the original payee, Olivia may be found in breach of their rules.
Police Investigation
With the fallout of both scandals still swirling in our minds, it appears neither are showing signs of slowing down anytime soon. Most recently, police have confirmed that they are investigating both the OnlyFans leaked image and the glass smashing incident.
NSW Police confirmed to news.com.au that a complaint was made on February 24, 2022, about an incident in November 2021 at a property in Bargo, where Domenica smashed a wine glass at the couples retreat.
A police spokesperson confirmed that the inquiry is ongoing, and that they are also looking into the nude photo leak. On March 19, 2022, a complaint as made at the Inner West Police area in Sydney about the alleged distribution of an image without consent. A Change.org petition with nearly124,000 signatures called for action to be taken against Olivia and could be partly responsible for the launch of the criminal investigation.
