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OPINION: Are MAFS Couple Tracey Jewel And Dean Wells Relationship Goals?

Even Troy is baffled by what happened on the show last night

I’m confused: Are Tracey Jewel and Dean Wells supposed to be setting us relationship goals? Because that appears to be what transpired on Married at First Sight tonight where not only did the experts praise the strength of the couple’s relationship but advised others in the experiment – and by extension, us at home – to follow in their footsteps.

Yes, that’s the same couple where the “husband” cheated on the “wife” less than two weeks into their “marriage”. The same couple were the “husband” refused to take any responsibility for his actions, choosing instead to blame everyone else, including the other woman’s unsuspecting partner.

The same couple where that same “husband” came out with such gems as, “My perfect wife would be tall, beautiful, brunette, definitely like a slim girl and loving your makeup and your nice shoes. That’s what women are all about and that’s what us men are attracted to.” And “Let’s face it, Tracey’s looks are not her best quality.”

But having weathered the cheating scandals, the thinly veiled aggression in the days thereafter and some truly cringe-worthy rap battles, it appears Tracey and Dean have settled into some kind of romantic bliss of which all the other MAFS contestants could only dream.

Dean appears to have magically evolved overnight, acknowledging all his faults whilst wronged wife Tracey has pushed her “alpha male” firmly out of the driver’s seat. It’s a turn of events I could never have predicted when the show kicked off. Neither, I suspect, could the experts who are now lavishing praise on a man they once pretty much decided was the worst human being they’d had in their experiment in living memory.

“It probably brought us closer, all this drama,” speculated Dean of the unexpected effect his unsavoury dalliance with Instagram model Davina had upon his now-happy marriage. 

Is Married at First Sight trying to teach us that behaving badly – and being forgiven with barely a whimper – is the secret to a successful relationship?

Certainly, it appears to be what another woman who is currently being completely mistreated by her “husband” is taking away from this controversial couple.

Gabrielle Bartlett is currently chained in TV matrimony to Nasser Sultan, who not only predominantly talks about himself in the third person (never a good sign) but blankly refuses to put his “wife” first, scootering out as soon as the going gets tough.

Despite telling WHO just earlier this week that “in my real world, I’m not one to stay around when I feel a level of interest isn’t be reciprocated,” Gabrielle seems to have taken heart from Tracey’s lead – where staying with a man who disrespects you somehow gives you the “power”.

While the whole of Australia was yelling at their screens, “Run Gabrielle, run”, the feisty single-mum was busily writing “stay” on her card at the commitment ceremony.

Why? Let us remind you in her own televised words.

“I came into this very committed,” she said. “And I vowed to myself where there was a crack of light I will stay until there was darkness. And I think a beautiful testament to someone who has already done that is my beautiful sister in the world, Tracey.”

As Nasser – and, let’s face it, the entire MAFS community – reeled in shock, Gabrielle continued to baffle me with her strange new TV world logic.

“I’m feeling quite empowered at the moment,” she said of her decision to continue any kind of relationship with Nasser in the aftermath of him becoming Australia’s new most hated man (congrats Dean, your time here is done). “I’m not a doormat.”

If you say so Gab, if you say so.

This article originally appeared on WHO

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