Gay Groom Simon Flocco Walks Out, Slams MAFS Australia Producers

Married at First Sight Australia (MAFS) kicked off with a bang this year, when their first gay groom in almost a decade left his husband-to-be a day before the wedding and deactivated his social media profiles. 

MAFS groom Simon Flocco quit the reality television show after a day of filming and removed all traces of his social media presence online following the show’s premiere last month

The Adelaide man was shown describing his past experiences with dating in the pilot episode at the groom’s party. “I always had girlfriends. It just took me a while to realise what my true sexuality was,” Flocco said. 

Before season 11 premiere, Flocco criticised MAFS’s decision to include him in the lineup, telling The Daily Mail, “Why am I even in the lineup? I suppose they’d do anything for ratings.” 

Simon Slams MAFS Australia Producers

The Daily Mail Australia revealed that while Flocco had initially allowed Channel Nine access to his Instagram account before the show, he had changed his mind and was shocked that he had made the official line-up after assuming he’d be edited out.

He told the outlet it was a ‘real shocker’ when he saw himself in the official line-up for the show. 

MAFS producers released photographs of the lineup for season 11, where Flocco’s picture showed a significantly lower resolution image in comparison to the rest of the cast. 

A source disclosed to Yahoo Lifestyle that producers used a photograph that Flocco had previously submitted as he had withdrawn from the show before the cast reached photo shoot day.

“Shortly after filming his backstory and the groom’s bucks party, he changed his mind about doing the show and quit,” the insider revealed.

Quits Before Wedding

Expert John Aiken was forced to make a trip to Melbourne to personally inform one of the grooms, Michael Felix, that his match had quit the show via email right before their wedding. 

Aiken explained that Flocco’s decision to withdraw from the show was due to “pressure” and “the unknown” of the experiment.

According to an insider from the show, the day after filming the bucks party, all the grooms were called into a meeting by show executives. 

During the meeting, the grooms “spent hours going over their contracts which they’d all now signed, discussing in great detail the potential ramifications if they breach them and breaking down exactly what the next six months would be like, including press intrusion and people from their pasts speaking out,” the source told Yahoo Lifestyle. 

Scare Tactics

The production insider added that they employed a “scare tactic” annually to ensure the cast was kept in line once filming began but this “backfired with Simon.”

Sources claim that Flacco’s abrupt withdrawal from social media is attributed to his concerns about the potential exposure of his personal life and the ‘real reason’ behind his decision to quit. 

“Simon was not coping with all the interest and the hype about him being involved in the show,” an insider told The Daily Mail. Following Flocco’s exit, it was reported that Felix would be paired with Perth-based hairdresser, Stephen Stewart. 

Since MAFS premiered in 2015, it has only featured one gay couple, Craig Roach and Andy Ankers in 2016. However, their relationship ended after just a few days.