Married At First Sight's Mark Kiley thought he'd become major TV star but ended up unemployed
Mark Kiley from Married At First Sight has spoken out about how his hopes of TV fame were dashed
This year's Married At First Sight has to have been one of the most shocking seasons yet.
From bombshell revelations, shocking feuds and cheating scandals, it's been hard to tear your eyes from the screen.
But one of the stars of the series has since spoken out about his life after the show.
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And it's safe to say, it's not all rainbows and butterflies.
Mark Kiley was introduced to the show fairly late on.
He tied the knot with Sean Malkin on the Channel 4 reality dating show, but things did not go according to plan.
Mark was introduced as something of a mama's boy, unable to cook or clean for himself.
Luckily, Sean was a partner who enjoyed caring for his new husband.
However, eventually the cracks in the pair's relationship began to show, and the couple eventually opted to leave the dating experiment single.
And on top of not finding love on the show, Mark has also opened up about the lack of career opportunities in his time since MAFS - something he was not expecting.
Speaking to The Sun, he said: "I thought I’d be living the high life, going to events, doing lots of Instagram stuff and that life would be better after being on the show.
"It feels like I was mis-sold a dream.
"If I had known I’d only be there for such a short amount of time I wouldn’t have bothered.
"My match wasn’t ready for a relationship and I’ve had to go back to my old workplace."
Mark opened up about having 'really bad dating life' and recalled 'bursting into tears' when he received a call from MAFS producers.
He believed the show would finally give him his 'happy ending'.
However, Mark now claims the show was 'more focused on creating drama than love'.
He explains: "They told us we would be ‘bombshells’ – which they later called intruders – and that it was ‘like Love Island'. I’d never watched Love Island so I didn’t know what that meant.
“They said ‘Put it this way, Ekin-Su [Cülcüloğlu] was a bombshell and look at her now, you’ll be fine and great’. I looked her up and was impressed.”
He also believes the show was too full, saying: “There were too many couples this year.
"At one point there must have been 24 of us and everyone was talking and yelling over the top of one another all of the time.”
He also believes other participants were there to find fame, saying: “When we came in, I remember someone asking ‘Have you done TV before?’ and telling me to what to do and what not to do to get more airtime.
“A lot of them seemed to be in there just to get on TV.
"I know one couple had decided they would just be friends but kept it quiet because they wanted to stay on the show for as long as they could."
In response to Mark's claims, a Channel 4 spokesperson told The Sun: “All contributors are thoroughly prepped for the experience of being on Married at First Sight UK, a prominent TV reality series.
“We stress to all cast that the series should not be seen as a vehicle to gain fame or celebrity and warn against unrealistic expectations of this nature.”
Topics: Married At First Sight, Channel 4, Sex and Relationships
Annie Walton Doyle