Married At First Sight Australia's Matt Bennett Accuses 'Abusive' Ex Wife Lauren Huntriss Of 'Punching Him'

MAFS Australia's Matthew Bennett has accused his ex-wife and co-star Lauren Huntriss of "punching him" and sending "abusive text messages" during production of the show.

Sitting down with Phil Reynolds for Celebs & The Average Joe podcast, Matt made some explosive claims about Lauren and the show itself, claiming he was "pulled into the experiment and fooled" and adding the show's priority is "drama and ratings".

Channel Nine)

Despite rooting for the couple initially, fans will know that Lauren and Matt's relationship broke down pretty early on. Matt entered the marriage as a self-described "29-year-old virgin" but not long after the pair slept together for the first time, it became clear they were very different people.

Now, Matt has said he can't even bring himself to watch the show because "none of what he sees is the reality of what happened."

"I fell for the experiment. I took everyone on their word, this person I was matched with was someone who said she was one thing and I believed it," said Matt.

"It was only a couple of days later after I'd done the deed, that this other person, the mask, the veneer began to slip and I began to see the kind of person she really was and who she was pretending to be wasn't who I thought she was.

"My exit of the show ended quite abruptly with me saying I wasn't attracted to this person, and that was because when I found out the person she was, the values she had, it wasn't something I was looking for, it wasn't the kind of person I was attracted to."

Channel Nine)

Matt went on to claim that towards the end of his time on the show, Lauren "punched him on the shoulder" during one of the dinner parties.

"Everyone at the dinner party drank a lot and it's possible that this person might have just had a bit too much, I'm not 100 per cent sure what her motivation was but she just started punching me in the shoulder as hard as she could, and I said 'what are you doing?' and she said, 'I'm frustrated'. I said to the [production runner] 'are you going to do something about this?'

"And the runner said, 'you're a big guy you can take it' so I thought okay, I guess that's the attitude of the show."

Tyla has approached Endemol Shine Australia for a comment.

Matt claims he later relayed the situation to head producers, who were concerned enough to move him to a different area of the hotel for safety reasons once the relationship was over.

Channel Nine)

Matt also claims he was too scared to check his phone because of "abusive messages" from Lauren, adding: "It got to the point where every time I heard my phone ding I would just feel sick to my stomach, I was scared to check it.

"Any notification filled me with anxiety, I didn't want to deal with this person. I would get messages saying 'I miss you' or 'I love you', but because I didn't respond, an abusive message would come back... it got to the point where I contacted producers and the publicist on a daily basis, [saying] I'm really concerned this person is getting out of hand, can you do something about it.

"And they would say 'yeah, yeah, we've spoken to her and she's said she will stop' and then it would just start up again."

Channel Nine)

Amongst the shocking claims, Matt added: "I regret letting myself being pulled into the experiment and being fooled.

You can listen to Matthew's podcast interview in full here.

Tyla has reached out to Lauren's reps and the producers of MAFS Australia for comment.

In response, Lauren told Tyla: "I think it is a real shame that Matthew continues to hold negativity toward me and feels the need to continue to express it publicly.

"I was also hurt and did express it publicly in the past. However, I no longer hold any negativity toward Matthew, nor do I wish to perpetuate any negative feelings that he might still hold by responding any further than I am doing in the contents of this email.

"I hope that Matthew finds some sense of relief in further discussing his feelings about what happened three years ago. I also hope that he finds peace and satisfaction in moving on from it shortly, as I already have done."

Topics: Entertainment News, Married At First Sight Australia, TV News

Lucy Devine

Lucy is a journalist working for Tyla. After graduating with a master's degree in journalism, she has worked in both print and online and is particularly interested in fashion, food, health and women's issues. Northerner, coffee addict, says hun a lot. Get in touch at [email protected].