When Emma Barnes first signed up for Married at First Sight UK, she never could have believed how much her life was about to change. And, after taking a huge leap of faith to tie the knot with a total stranger, the 32 year old had her very first relationship broadcast on national television. Although she may not have stayed with husband Caspar Todd, the TV star's personality won over fans right away. And it turns out she was a bit of a sleuth behind-the-scenes too as Emma revealed how she managed to break one strict rule without producers knowing.
She told OK!: "I broke a few [rules]. We couldn’t really speak to family, and sometimes you just wanted a private conversation. So when we went out for drinks, I’d go up to random people and say, "Excuse me, I’m in a really weird situation. Can I borrow your phone?” and call my sister on strangers’ phones." But the lengths Emma went to in order to keep in touch with her family didn't stop there - she also downloaded a game to send 'secret messages'. The star continued: "I also managed to get production to let me download an app called Hay Day, where you build farms and talk to other farms. I found my sister’s and messaged her on that. I called it Farm At First Sight, so she’d know it was me."
It seems like Emma was a bit of a detective on this year's reality show as she also previously opened up about the moment that she discovered there were new arrivals set to enter the experiment. However, this time, her curiosity over the situation landed her in some rather hot water with those working behind the scenes. During an interview, the TV personality explained how one day she’d noticed that there were six new phone numbers on her production phone. With the phone giving brides and grooms access to other members of the cast as well as the welfare team, Emma had a sneaky suspicion that they were some new couples - so decided to investigate.
After her partner Caspar was unfazed by the new names, Emma headed to Holly and Alex s apartment to tell them the revelation. While there the group attempted to ring each of the phone numbers, though it didn’t go down too well. “I’ve run up to Holly and Alex’s and there’s a couple people around there having a Chinese. I run into the room and I’m like, ‘I’ve got some news’ and we end up drinking loads of rum in their apartment and Polly, I think, says ‘let’s just call them’,” she told Cosmopolitan UK.
And while Amy was the only bride to answer the phone, the group took it in turns to welcome her to the experiment. “Amy was the only one who answered and we all just went round one by one. Luckily I wasn’t the first person to say, but it was my phone that had been incriminated,” she added. “Unfortunately that phone call was actually recorded and we all got pulled in one by one and I got told I’m supposed to be the mature one of the group.”
