Married at First Sight UK star Steven has insisted he has “proof” he wasn’t on a dating app during his TV marriage to Nelly – and has admitted he was actually banned.
The marriage between MAFS stars Nelly and Steven came to a dramatic end earlier this week, after the bride’s friend informed her that she had seen her TV husband on a dating app.
Nelly then took a screenshot of Steven’s alleged profile, which had apparently been verified, printed it out and presented it to the experts during the commitment ceremony. When Steven was questioned on his, he inisisted that he had not signed up to the site and claimed that someone had stolen his identity and catfished him.
Their fellow brides and grooms reacted in shock, with many pointing out that dating apps can only give verified profiles to users if a person has sent a video of themselves talking to show it is actually them creating the account. Paul C. Brunson, Charlene Douglas, and Melanie Schilling all looked unconvinced as Steven protested and proclaimed his innocence, but acknowledged the issue wouldn’t be resolved there and then.
Unsurprisingly, the couple both chose to leave the experiment moments later. Now, Steven has taken to Instagram with what he says is “proof” he was not on the site. “Not that I need to show any more proof here, but seem as you all like to talk and form opinions. I’m not going to be mad(e) into looking like a ‘cheat’ for the sake of entertainment,” he wrote.
Alongside it, he shared a video which allegedly showed that when he enters his details into the app – which are of course blurred to protect his privacy, he gets a notification which states that his profile was removed at the end of 2023, around 18 months before filming for MAFS began. As a result, he said he could not have possibly been on the site at the time of filming, in April this year.
Married at First Sight star Steven insists he wasn’t on a dating app while married to his on-screen wife Nelly – because he was actually banned. Photo by Channel 4. | Channel 4
“I was banned back in November 2023 for violating terms of service (still yet to be known what those violations are) banned a month after my last relationship break-up of October 2023,” he wrote. He also pointed out that he would have been idenitified as new user on the profile Nelly’s friend claimed to have found. “Oh, and if a new profile was set up during my ‘home stays’ where was my ‘new here’ next to my name?,” he added.
In another connected post, he also shared screenshots of emails he said he sent to the site at the time his account was banned, asking why this decision was taken, and the responses he had saying his ban would remain. Alongside this, he also wrote of the lack of believability in the idea that he would have actually matched with Nelly’s friend, as had also been alleged.
He said that on the day of the apparent revelation he had planned to travel to his on-screen wife’s home city of Manchester to end the marriage. “How convenient of if all the day I was travelling up to Manchester to film a scene cutting it off (a scene Nelly knew about) and I happened to match up with her flatmates friend that day travelling up,” he said.
He went on: “With how big Manchester is, the person I allegedly match up with is her friend & more to the point, how on earth would that friend even know what I looked like if she hadn’t seen who Nelly was partnered up with!?All seems a little fishy to me to be honest.”
On her Instagram, Nelly posted a photo of herself sat in a bath with sunglasses on holding a drink alongside the caption: “Can I get a refund please?? #MAFSUK#exhusband.”