'MAFS AU' expert John Aiken says 2026 cast were 'thirstiest for fame' yet

If you thought this year of ‘Married At First Sight Australia’ was more unhinged than ever, you’re not the only one - even the experts felt it.

'A Little Bit Extra' podcast host Sharyn Casey sat down with relationship expert John Aiken, who didn’t hold back on just how “full on” the 2026 season really was - calling out everything from the shocking behaviour to the “thirst for fame” instead of love.

According to John, a lot of the chaos came down to one group, the self-proclaimed “boss babes”.

“We had some real moments of complete drama,” he said, explaining the group of women came in hot and tried to control everything - their husbands, other brides, and even the experts themselves.

“They were very combative… they’d say, ‘I’m just speaking my truth, I’m a girl’s girl,’” John said, adding that they’d tell him he was  “a man trying to silence women.”

“So it was highly charged.”

John, alongside his fellow experts, tried to hold them accountable, but it often ended with contestants walking out mid-commitment ceremonies and refusing to face the music.

“My job is to call out bad behaviour and hold a mirror up,” he explained. “I want them to sit up, listen, and hopefully, adjust and take on some feedback to be accountable.”

And it wasn’t just one or two, John revealed there were maybe six participants this year who struggled to take feedback and kept repeating the same patterns that were “keeping them single”.

Sharyn asked if John believed this year’s casting was the thirstiest for fame yet, after all the behind-the-scenes and post-show chaos that has surfaced.

We’ve seen staged paparazzi shots, a dramatic group dinner without cameras and plenty of social media posts leveraging off the show’s big fallouts.

“I certainly think it was up there, with some of our most thirsty cast members of the last five seasons, I would think,” John said. 

But he was happy to see some couples embrace the challenges and really turn a corner.

John pointed to couples like Philip, Stella, Steven and Rachel who actually leaned into the experiment - messy moments and all - and tried to make it work.

What John didn’t love was that the grooms this year “ran for cover”.

“They were genuinely terrified of standing up to the boss babes,” he claimed. “Until the very end”.

When final vows rolled around, things flipped.

“They found their voices,” he said. “When they had an opportunity to take the relationship into the real world after the experiment, they went, you know what? ‘I don't like who you are, this is offensive, disrespectful… It's uncompromising, it's unequal, and I want someone who's gonna treat me with respect, so I'm outta here.”

John hopes the brides who were left in shock following the final vows can “step back and go, ‘Maybe I need to adjust’.”

Despite all the chaos the 2026 season brought along with it, John wouldn’t change out any of the participants because it would defeat the purpose of the show - actually calling out what healthy (and unhealthy) relationships look like.

The fact is, [these people] exist,  and we hold them to account. We call out bad behaviour.

“It's a different story if you put people on and you don't say anything to them and you just give 'em a platform,” He adds. “But our role is to actually say, no, that's not appropriate.”

“We are really trying to give them, as well as the audience, an understanding of relationships, particularly what's helpful and what's not.”

Elsewhere in the podcast, John explains why a lot more unseen footage surfaced, giving the audience a better look into the toughest parts of navigating the experiment. 

You can catch all of that and more in the full episode of ‘A Little Bit Extra’ on rova.