MARRIED At First Sight’s Awhina has broken her silence on fellow show co-star Billy Belcher and their relationship since departing the programme.
Awhina Rutene and Billy Belcher have been hit with rampant romance rumours after they went ‘Instagram official’ with one another after their series of MAFS Australia came to an end earlier this year.
Just last month, the fan-favourite pair seemingly went official after teasing their new relationship on social media.
Paired up with Adrian Araouzou on the hit Channel 9 and E4 series, things were not rosy for Awhina with it ending on bad terms by the end of the experiment.
Meanwhile, Billy was coupled with Sierah Swepstone before she and Adrian revealed they had a connection.
After leaving the show, Awhina and Billy got close, with their "romance" leaving fans stunned last month.
But despite reports saying that the pair are together after they went Instagram official, The Sun can reveal this is not the case.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun about her relationship with Billy, Awhina got candid and opened up about their bond.
"Billy and I are really close, like, I've done so many podcasts on our relationship. We are extremely close, like, I'm seeing him on Thursday," she told us in our chat this week.
She added: "We speak a lot over the phone he calls me. I've gone to the movies with his mum.
"I've hung out with his sister multiple times, hung out with his brother.
"He's hung out with my family a lot. We've been very close since November last year.
"But the thing with our relationship is sometimes it can get confusing, because the world's heavily involved," she explained.
She later added: "I think that you can still have a beautiful relationship without being romantic and without ruining anything."
Awhina noted that their "friendship line can be a bit blurred" but affirmed that she loves him.
Opening up about why their relationship likely won't progress into anything romantic, she said that their life's trajectories look quite different.
"I love Billy. He's such a family man, but I also know what the next 5 years looks like for him," she added, explaining his love for travelling.
"I generally hope Billy gets everything he wants out of life... but the next 5 years look very different, like what I want versus what he wants.
"So it's kind of like... as much of those lines can be blurry... If we were to cross that line we'd probably lose our friendship down in like a year or two."
She then explained how she is keen to start dating again and expand her family even more.
"I truly want to get back into a relationship because I was in one for so long. Like 14 years," she told us.
"I like being a partner to someone, and I still want to grow my family like I'm not one and done. I want at least 3 kids.
"So my next 5 years looks like, when I'm ready to get back out there and start dating, grow my family, and probably go offline."
