Married at First Sight UK’s Thomas Hartley slammed reality shows for having “boring” casts that all look the same and said his castmates shouldn’t “blame the edit” for their actions.
Chatting to hosts Bobby Norris and Stephen Leng on the showbiz gossip programme Access All Areas, the reality star spoke openly about thinking reality shows need to start having more diverse casts: “I think it becomes a liquidated market when you’re just churning out people every year that are the same thing again and again. Where’s the representation for everyone? As much as everyone loves looking at someone who’s aesthetically pleasing and beautiful, I also love the likes of Alison Hammond who’s beautiful but completely outside the convention. That’s the type of person I want to see on telly. That’s the person that would influence me to want to buy something. Not some girl with hair extensions and fake nails.”
He continued: “I’m not trying to be general but that’s boring now. I get it, you’re beautiful, wonderful, marvellous but you’ve got the personality of a toenail. I’m bored of it. It’s boring. They’ll say this girl is plus sized and she’s a size 14. I don’t think that’s plus sized my love. In fact, plus sized starts at 16 at least so what your idea of plus sized is I’ve not got a clue.”
Later in the interview, the mental health care assistant slammed his Married at First Sight’s co-stars for complaining about the way the show was edited: “I don’t regret doing the show. It was really popular, it did really well, but I think unfortunately the success of it was hindered by people going on these big tangents about the edit or allegations being made or whatever it was that went on. I think that sort of hindered everybody else’s opportunity to grow to the level that they could have grown. Lots of people said “the edit did me dirty.” My outlook on that is if it came out your mouth you said it.”
He continued: “It’s a double-sided thing, I don’t regret it, but I wish that people would have been more accepting of their behaviour and gone “you know what, I messed up there.” You grow and you learn, and you watch yourself back. I think one of the biggest tools was being able to watch myself back on the telly because it allowed me to go oh, I didn’t like that, or I like that about myself. You have a mirror held up to you.”
Listen to the full episode, also featuring Stuart & Francis here.
