Resident MAFS relationship expert John Aiken dishes out some hard to hear advice on 9’s hit show
Willoughby resident John Aiken has a hard time going anywhere without being asked for updates on the couples in Nine’s reality TV show Married at First Sight (MAFS).
He was stretching at the gym the other day when a viewer of the show tapped him on the shoulder to ask him about MAFS. “You have to realise that you’re going to get recognised wherever you go, and most (people) want to know about the couples,” John says. “They are just so invested in the cast, that’s what they really want to talk about.”
John, a psychologist, had been working as a relationship specialist in his own practice when in 2014 he received a ‘crazy email’ asking if he was interested in being on a television show, MAFS.
He got the gig as a ‘relationships expert’ on the show, which he says started as a ‘very small observational documentary’ featuring four couples who, having never met before, were matched together by the experts and married ‘at first sight.’
“I expected it to be a relationship-based show where you’re matching people, giving them some advice along the way to see if they can get a fairy tale,” he says. “It was a unique concept, and right from the word go, people were curious about it.”
The show is now in its 13th season and features 12 couples. “It’s unbelievably popular – it changed my life,” John explains. “I don’t really do private practice anymore. I just do the show, promote the show and hold on tight with all the ups and downs and the rollercoaster ride that it is.”
He shares the role with fellow experts Mel Schilling and Alessandra Rampolla, and says that reality television now attracts ‘larger than life personalities,’ whom he will often hold to account for their actions.
“I’m a practical person,” he explains. “I don’t tend to mess around with my messaging. I just like to give people home truths and hold up a mirror and do it in a short, sharp way. So MAFS really fits me and my style well.
“I’m not there to be their friends. I’m there to get them to see patterns and to do something about it.
“Some of them take it on, a lot of them don’t, but it’s interesting to watch.” John says this season is marked by a strong, overpowering group of women who call themselves the ‘boss babes.’
“They try and dominate the experiment,” he says. “They come for the husbands, they come for any woman that stands up to them and they certainly come for the experts!”
Life on the North Shore is a long way from MAFS for John, who has recently sold ‘Tyneside,’ the home he shares in Willoughby with his wife Kelly Swanson-Roe and their two teenage children.
Tyneside is one of the oldest homes in Willoughby, and was renovated over five years by Kelly, an interior designer.
He says they intend to stay on the North Shore. “We love raising kids here, it’s very family-oriented,” he says.
“You don’t really bump into a lot of the (MAFS) reality participants floating around Willoughby!”
MAFS season 13 is on Nine and 9Now.
