The Married At First Sight Season 2 reunion doesn’t air until tomorrow, but there has been plenty of drama going down with the cast over the weekend! As The Ashley told you (first!), a commenter on a TV message board who claimed to be part of the show’s production staff made some outrageous claims about the show– from how the Season 2 men were cast, to the crazy things that he/she claimed happened in the time between the filming of the ‘Decision Day” episode and the reunion special. The commenter stated that Ryan De Nino had a cocaine problem, and that his wife, Jessica Castro filed a protection order against him because she was afraid after he allegedly threatened her and her family.
The message board poster also stated that the three men of Season 2 were quickly cast, and did not undergo all of the testing that the Season 2 women and Season 1 cast did.
The show’s experts– sexologist Dr. Logan Levkoff, spiritual adviser Greg Epstein and psychologist Dr. Joseph Cilona–are speaking out about the commenter’s claims about lax casting practices.“There was no male casting done,” the commenter on the message board wrote. “One guy was found on match.com, one on Facebook because he had acted and modeled prior, and one was a friend of a contestant on season 1. NONE of these men wanted to be married. They all wanted to advance their careers or have “fame.” The producers sold them that way.” (The Ashley was able to confirm that Sean did indeed know Season 1’s Doug Hehner, and Ryan De Nino acted and modeled before appearing on ‘MAFS’.)
The experts defended the process they used to cast the people featured on Season 2.
“Our process is legitimate and rigorous with psych evaluations, background checks, questionnaires, interviews, and a multitude of assessments of different varieties,” Logan Levkoff wrote on Twitter. “I feel terribly that any of you have been led to think otherwise.
As for marital success, while we want all of our couples to work out, there is no guarantee. No one has ever said that this was easy. If relationships and marriages were easy, we would have no participants.
“What is sad, to me, is that unfounded and inaccurate stories about our experiment undermine the emotional and physical work of so many people involved, our participants included,” Dr. Levkoff continued. “That being said, I understand that some of our participants may be unhappy with how things transpired for them. But all of us involved entered into MAFS with the best of intentions and with a hope and a belief that we were a part of something special. I still believe that.” (Click here to read her full statement.)
Dr. Cilona also spoke out and encouraged viewers not to believe random Internet posters.
While The Ashley absolutely agrees with this, she must note that at least some of the things that the poster stated have turned out to be true. Of course, that does not mean everything that person wrote is true. However, Ryan proved on Saturday that at least the part about Jessica getting a protection order against him is true. He posted a copy of the protection order to his Instagram account, in addition to several other posts that accuse Jessica of making fake Instagram accounts for him.
In an exclusive interview with The Ashley in March, Dr. Cilona provided some insight on how much time and effort went into picking the matches for Season 2.
“I think the viewers would be extremely surprised at how much time goes in to this process,” he said. “The data yielded by my assessments of the finalists for Season 2 was over 3,800 pages! I had data on each individual that averaged about 150 pages each. It took me almost 400 hours to go through all of that data to come up with my recommendations for matches.”
Greg Epstein echoed the other experts’ sentiments.
“Logan already responded well-she speaks for me about this,” he tweeted. “Sad to see untruths spread but proud of our work…Yes-truth comes out eventually. It will. We’re proud of our process; it’s serious, intends best.”
The situation continues to get messier by the day. Several Season 1 cast members stated their opinions on the Ryan/Jessica situation over the weekend. Jason Carrion stated that the commenter’s claims that he and his wife Cortney made $20,000 an episode were false. He also posted several social media posts that showed his alliance to Ryan De Nino, which didn’t make him very popular with many disgruntled fans…or Season 2 cast member Davina Kullar, for that matter. Davina allegedly posted the following to her private Facebook page, calling out the Season 1 cast members who she felt defended Ryan De Nino’s behavior.
Season 1’s Jamie Otis also spoke out on the allegations.
“In no way whatsoever would I ever support & encourage someone who is mentally & physically abusive towards another person,” she tweeted on Sunday. “I strongly encourage abused to stay away & abuser to get help. Both need counseling, albeit for different reasons. #NoToleranceForViolence”
In a comment on his Instagram post, Jason later clarified that he was not talking about the restraining order drama in his post.
To read a summary of all of the ‘MAFS’ drama that went down in the last few days, click here!
To read The Ashley’s full interview with Dr. Joseph Cilona, click here!
28 Responses
lots of rumours are coming for this auditions and their audition dates. i don’t know when the audition will be start for this show and where but if we care about rumours then feel this show will casting can be start anytime.
Even after watching, what, three episodes of this new season?…These “experts” need to stick to off air, person to person communication.
We now now have what, added at least 10 NEW divorces to our already marriage failed society.
In good faith I could NEVER bring two people together, for ratings, professional attention, some television show, KNOWING there is a 90 % chance there will be a divorce in 6 weeks. FOR SHAME.
And this seasons women show two of the most horribly spoiled, arrogant, nasty women I have had the displeasure Of watching.
Tonights my LAST episode. I predict failure for ALL. SADLY.
I will tune in for the reunion and check my predictions.
And to the men, you guys didnt do anything wrong. You could haveshowed up riding white stallions and lived in castles and two of these nasties MIGHT have stayed, for the perks.
DROP THIS HORRIBLE SHOW
Davina was totally selfish. When her husband sean was overwhelmed by the new marriage and Manhattan, instead of putting her arm around him and saying, darling, we are in this together, we’ll work it out, she said she didn’t feel special! Don’t confuse being nice and respectful with being gay!!, Sean was the best!
The most transparent thing to me was that Sean was probably gay…He put on a show of passion for Davina when his friends were at the wedding …but turned cold right after…at least the others consummated the marriage..which by the way was probably a mistake too lol…really sad but also unrealistic that you can marry someone at first sight and make it last
Yes,rumors are just rumors,until proven false or a fact.I have to say,most of rumors were confirmed,as true in the Reunion Show.Actually,it came as no surprise to me.I remember in the show promotion clips,one of the guys said,he wasn’t employed.However,I never seen it play out in the preceding weeks on the show.The rumors pretty summed my analysis of the MAFS Show.That’s alot of pressure,stress & full commitment in a short amount of time.However,the British version of MAFS was an epic failure & the US version is not looking to bright,either.Again,it’s an experiment..some work & some don’t.We live in such a fast pace world,but still some things can’t be based upon “microwave oven” results and marriage is one of them.
So I am assuming that crazy Ryan gave Jessica STDs and that’s why it’s being pointed out. Many heavy drug users do pick up diseases. Dr. Jackoff looked like she was lusting for Sean.
I think he was truly distressed at the beginning of the reunion because he’s gay and possibly thought he could be the good straight son his parents want him to be. I think his story about finding God was true in the sense that he’s looking for some kind of absolution to his gayness. So sad he can’t just live his life openly gay.
davina and Sean wouldn’t work simply because Ryan is gay. Jaclyn and Ryan should work out, they learned to love without selfishness . I think Ryan felt guilty leaving his mom and niece for good reason due to the tragic situation with his sister and brother in law dying. Jessica and Ryan was a disaster from the start, Ryan is clearly an abusive coward. He appears to have roid-rage, either way this show’s lucky he didn’t hurt her or kill her. My heart breaks for the women, they were truly committed to the show.
Read the “drug use, divorce and drugs” link above and you’ll change your mind. Ryan R. a mama’s boy which is exactly what I realized when he said at reunion he was back in his comfort zone. Yeah. The basement living with mom.
I’ve read a lot of blogs because I loved this show and now I will never watch it again. Sean bi and a liar just like Davina said. By their own admission, he spent 10 days with her. He is the one who said he would move. Davina was honest. She had the last laugh by not sleeping with the narcissist.
And Ryan Oehl aka DeNino? Google Ryan Oehl Married at first sight. These women should sue the producers for fraud.
As my soon to be fiancee and I watched this season, I told him that I didn’t believe that Ryan was serious about marriage and I felt that he was playing to the camera’s.The way he treated Jessica and then all of the sudden he changes in two weeks. BS! He was too immature. We both knew Davina and Sean wouldn’t work… But we we’re so shocked to see the other Ryan not continue to invest in the marriage. All of the ladies were willing to invest their time, minds and hearts but I don’t think any of the men came with the same commitment… So sad and quite disappointing.
what a mess, Jessica’s lawyer implied this morning that she would be suing the show, good for her, this fake show should be cancelled, I know I’ll never watch it again!
We agree exactly. I think a law suit is absolute appropriate. It feels as if the women were totally duped.
The guy was verbally abusive from the very beginning. The show didn’t make her choose to stay married. Some woman will settle for anything just to be married.
He was charming and she wanted to be married. Giver her a break. So you would have smarter? Maybe. We’ll never know for sure.
Yes because the “experts” are going to throw themselves and the show under the bus. Haha! Their motto will always be- deny…deny…deny – deflect. I wouldn’t expect otherwise.
As for Jason – here’s some harsh truth in MY opinion, he’s was a loser last year and still clearly a loser this year ( a sad story doesn’t equal a good person, even crappy people go through horrible things ) and by defending Ryan who blatantly showed his true colors on national TV with no regard or regret he only once again proves this.. I am also willing to bet Jason and Courtney have primarily stayed married because they were both in need of that money not because they are madly in love. They both weren’t exactly financially stable when they went on the show. We also know these people don’t do this for free.
Good for Davina for speaking up.
“The data yielded by my assessments of the finalists for Season 2 was over 3,800 pages! I had data on each individual that averaged about 150 pages each. It took me almost 400 hours to go through all of that data to come up with my recommendations for matches.”
That just makes this process look even worse–none of the couples made it… so is he saying that the process doesn’t work? is collecting all that data meaningless or too careless to properly analyze it and recognize behavioral patterns? or are you lying and there were no legitimate evaluations done on the men, which is it?
Usually there is mostly truth when things like this are outed and then you see the typical damage control of denial.
I didn’t expect the “experts” to respond any differently. The person who wrote the alleged wrong doing specified the producers of the show did’t properly vet the men for season 2. Ryan DeNino clearly had verbal abuse issues as soon as the 1st honeymoon episode aired. I recognized him as an abusive person immediately; was it fueled by drug use? Won’t speculate.
He did things Jessica identified she didn’t like–his response was, “that’s just me, that’s how I show affection.” My abusive ex-husband used to tell me the same thing. An order of protection is secured with plenty of proof that it’s necessary. Maybe Jessica didn’t say Ryan is involved in the drug culture, but something is Definitely not good there.
Also, why on earth would Davina be paired with Sean who had no interest in moving from NJ?
Nothing in season 2 flowed or made sense as in season 1.
Bottom line: none of the women ended up with a good match. Perhaps all the extensive work Dr. Cilona claims was done was an after thought once candidates were presented.
Another example: why on earth would Davina be paired with Sean who had no interest in moving to Manhattan which was a deal breaker for her?
sorry for the repetition of my Davina/Sean comment. Poor editing on MY part!!
agreed. i think jacyln and ryan could work but ryan d., i think he recognized that he’d blown it and was doing damage control to leave a better taste in peoples’ mouths. he def seems like he thought he was about jess and so many people said, look at how mean he’s being in front of people, imagine when the cameras aren’t there! should’ve acted from the get-go cux he blew it. if u think about it, is 150 pages even enough to cover someone’s life? i think davina got a bad rap too and sean wasn’t totally honest about being willing to relocate. i can believe he and ryan d weren’t in it for marriage
The thing is that even Jaclyn said during the reunion that “he lied” talking about Ryan. That was it for me. From her own mouth, she admitted Ryan was a liar. I hope his ex-girlfriend dumps him again and mom gets enough courage to tell him to leave.
Face it, a con artist, a momma’s boy and a narcissist. That’s vetting? Also, how in the world could they not know when a guy didn’t have a job? (Ryan D.) I will never watch that show again. And Logan should be ashamed at how she talked to Davina who had Sean’s number early on.
Interesting that Logan’s response defending the expert’s conduct was posted to Twitter BEFORE you posted your original story “exposing” the “outrageous claims about the show,” including the supposed failures by the experts to vet the men. Yet you failed to include her statements in your original post, making that original post extremely one-sided. You also failed to link back to your interview with Dr. C from back in March in which he discussed in detail the many hours they spent vetting ALL the participants. More careless reporting from you designed to sensationalize this story. I don’t know what the whole truth about this mess is yet (few, if any, of us viewers do) but it’s people like you who foster these rumors and innuendo without verifying all facts that are causing so much harm.
@AV Howdy– No where in my original story do I claim that the poster’s statement regarding the experts not vetting the men is true. In fact, my story never discussed that part of the post. I confirmed that the men were, indeed, cast the way the poster stated. I did not state that I proved the claim that the men were cast in a week; I simply reported that it was claimed. I will, of course, link these two stories together so that readers will get all responses and sides available. -The Ashley
But how do you KNOW that’s “the way” they were cast? That’s my point. Do you have proof they found Ryan R. on Match? Do you have proof they picked Ryan D. (off Facebook or otherwise) *because* he was an aspiring actor?
The guy didn’t even have a job much less being a self-employed “business consultant.” Basic vetting should have unearthed that fact at least. C’mon, AV.
@AV do you really think the experts or FYI are just going to come out and say “oh btw we did mess up and this experiment went horribly wrong because we didn’t do our jobs correctly”? Haha of course not. That would leave them wide open to multiple lawsuits and injury. Clearly there are fans that also caught on to many things during this season that just seemed off.
Just Take a look at most of the “reality” shows out there and the huge scandals that have come out over the years regarding them. I would think its pretty fair assumption to say that many of the shows don’t even bother to do their homework or even choose to ignore it when they do. Just look at-The Duggars, honey boo boo, real housewives……the list goes on. MAFS Is clearly no different.
This site is a gossip site and thats the point of articles like this. But usually where there’s smoke there is fire so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this isn’t mostly the truth.
i wonder if the cast can actually sue though -and besides jessica, not sure what anyone else would try to sue for – i am sure the contracts clearly exclude the network from any liability, besides maybe gross negligence if there was an injury during their interviews. everyone is so quick to say “sue them” .. but what for? besides jessica, who may have a sliver of a chance if the network could have easily found out he was an abusive addict, the others were just the victims of a greedy network who rushed things for season 2 rather then take the time they did for season 1.
i would think that she could. she agreed to do this, and ultimately slept with ryan, under the conditions that he’d be tested for drugs and std’s and properly vetted. if the network did n fact fail to do those things she def could win a suit
I am not defending any bad behavior where it actually exists. My point is simply that all this rumor-mongering does not help anyone. But can we wait until the facts come out and are verified please?