Married At First Sight jilted bride Awhina Rutene has opened up about what it was really like being married to her TV husband Adrian Araouzou following the shock finale.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Australia, the 30-year-old single mum did not hold back as she revealed just how uncomfortable she felt around her match.
'His behaviour before the show was questionable. His behaviour during the show... very questionable! Poor, poor, poor!' Awhina explained.
She said she was finding it difficult to permanently cut ties with Adrian because after the dating experiment finished he kept trying to contact her on social media.
'I blocked him, not the other way around... Then he added me on Snapchat and I blocked him! Then he added me on TikTok. I'm grateful I've closed all that,' she said.
Awhina added she believed it was a failing of the production staff for pairing her with such an ill-suited match - and she felt pressure to remain on the show despite wanting to leave.
Married At First Sight jilted bride Awhina Rutene has opened up about what it was really like being married to her TV husband Adrian Araouzou following the shock finale
'I feel like they failed me. When I chose to stay, I genuinely felt peer-pressured into making that decision,' she said.
She said she was working hard to completely cut Adrian from her life and hoped to never speak his name again.
'After this week, I will never mention Adrian's name again. We did this experience together and it was hard... I will happily never speak of him again,' she said.
Awhina said her 'final straw' was when Adrian went online and made comments about both her and her twin sister Cleo.
'He's not a child. Stop looking at this man like a child. He would go online and attack my character and my sister. It's relentless,' she said.
'He's choosing every day to make these poor decisions, he has zero self-awareness. You are rewarding bad behaviour by helping him, if he wants to drown, let him.'
Awhina described Adrian's behaviour as selfish and emotionally manipulative.
'He told me what I could and couldn’t say. I felt alone,' she explained.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Australia, the 30-year-old single mum did not hold back when revealing just how uncomfortable she felt around her match
'His behaviour before the show was questionable. His behaviour during the show... very questionable! Poor, poor, poor!' Awhina explained
'There were moments of kindness – but they only came after he'd done something wrong. It felt performative... I kept giving him lifelines.'
Awhina admits that viewers missed some of the high points in their relationship, but insists the low moments were deeply hurtful.
'It wasn't all bad. We had some real highs. But the lows were so low. Unfortunately, what aired didn't show any of the good. So people didn't understand why I stayed,' she said.
After filming ended, Awhina says she tried to remain kind and supportive, keeping communication open because she felt sorry for Adrian.
Now removed from the chaos of filming and away from Adrian, Awhina says she's begun to heal.
'I think I've got my glow back. It's amazing what cutting off someone toxic can do for your soul,' she said.
She also revealed she had originally applied for the show alongside her twin sister Cleo, who pulled out due to work commitments.
'We went through the whole casting process together. That made it exciting. I truly believed my forever person was waiting at the end of the aisle,' she explained.
Instead, she says she was paired with someone who didn't align with her values or desires for a future.
Meanwhile, Adrian was caught in multiple lies during Monday night's explosive final episode. The controversial groom and Awhina took to the couch with his TV bride for a final chat with the experts and to watch their marriage journey unfold on the screen
'I asked for someone with children – Adrian didn't want to date someone with a child. I asked for someone who'd go out of their way for others. I got someone who only does kindness for himself,' she claimed.
Meanwhile, Adrian was caught in multiple lies during Monday night's explosive final episode.
The controversial groom and Awhina took to the couch with his TV bride for a final chat with the experts and to watch their marriage journey unfold on the screen.
However, what the clip exposed was a number of lies the groom had told throughout the show's 12th season and a disrespectful comment he made regarding his relationship with fellow participant Sierah Swepstone, 31.
The video showed the moment it was revealed that Adrian and Sierah had been out to dinner together behind their partners' backs.
As feelings of betrayal were expressed at the table by both Awhina and groom Billy Belcher, 31, Adrian made a cheeky remark in his piece to camera.
'What do you think I'm gonna do, steal your wife or something?' he said.
'I mean, I'm only human right,' he added, boasting a cheeky smile.
The video showed the moment Adrian attempted to instigate a wife swap with fellow bride Sierah Swepstone
Then, the camera cut to Adrian venting to Sierah and former groom Tony Mojanovski, 53, in the aftermath of the bombshell revelation.
'We should just do that wife swap and see if they like it tomorrow,' he sensationally told Sierah
'We should do it,' he reiterated.
The moment comes after screenshots between Adrian and Sierah were exposed, showing the bride anxiously asking Adrian whether he'd told anyone about her attempt to convince the show's producers to let her and Adrian return to the experiment together, as a couple.
Elsewhere in the revealing clip, Adrian admitted to the producers he had lied about never cheating before, despite shaming Awhina when she admitted to cheating in the past.
What's more, he was caught flirting with backup bride Max during the series' final challenge, admitting that she was his 'type'.
'Is Max someone I would hang out with? Probably,' he said in his piece to camera.
'She's Awhina 2.0,' he added, which prompted multiple gasps from the show's other participants.
Following the many shocking revelations in the video, Awhina sat teary-eyed, broken and blindsided by her former husband's actions.
