As MAFS’ worst-kept secret leaks… how Ryan REALLY found out Clint was sleeping with his wife Jacqui – as we expose the producers’ most shocking act yet in the rogue tell-all interview Channel Nine tried to bury

It was meant to be an opportunity to find love.

Instead, MAFS intruder Clint Rice found himself trapped in a television spectacle where contestants were manipulated, threatened and edited beyond recognition.

Now, in his most unfiltered interview yet, Clint reveals the brutal truth about the show, from being ‘cut off’ by his PR to receiving threats from producers if he dared to walk away.

But most importantly, the 43-year-old businessman is speaking out about his deep concern for his girlfriend Jacqui Burfoot, the woman he fell for after the show – and how she has been unfairly portrayed in her on-screen marriage to Ryan Donnelly.

Inside Clint’s relationship with Jacqui 

Despite all the drama with producers, cast members and his ‘wife’ Lauren Hall, Clint is a happy man – because he found love with Jac-Jac-Jacqui..

‘We didn’t want to be smug about it or throw it in anyone’s face. We wanted to handle things respectfully,’ Clint says of their relationship.

He even sat down with Ryan to break the news to him personally, to ensure it wasn’t some staged confrontation for the cameras.

But he quickly adds: ‘Ryan tried to spin it as though we were mates – but we weren’t. We didn’t know each other before the show, and we won’t know each other after.’

Things are already getting serious for Clint and Jacqui, who are keen for a fresh start once the dust has settled on MAFS. She has already moved in with him in Tasmania.

‘We moved in with strangers on MAFS, so why not do it in real life, on our terms?’ Clint tells me.

‘She put everything on the line to make this work. I’m so glad she did.’

‘Jacqui is nothing like what they are showing’ 

But while Clint has moved on from the drama of the show, what he can’t ignore is how his girlfriend is being portrayed on national television.

‘It’s a hard watch. It’s tough seeing some of the cast on there and knowing who they really are versus what’s being shown. And Jacqui is copping it the worst,’ he tells me.

Clint says the edit has made Jacqui seem ‘unstable and all over the place’. In reality, he says, she is ‘an intelligent, driven woman with a double degree in law and finance’.

‘She’s smart, successful, and a great role model for young women – but they’re painting her as some kind of villain. It’s disgusting,’ he adds.

He also says that before entering the experiment, he had been warned about Jacqui by bride Rhi Disljenkovic, but would later realise those rumours were baseless.

‘Rhi had all these opinions about Jacqui. She was saying things that now I know were just bitter and nasty. When I actually met Jacqui, I saw she was nothing like what people were saying,’ he tells me.

Surprisingly, it was his on-screen wife Lauren who backed Jacqui from the outset, calling her ‘one of the smartest girls in here’.

Editing tricks made me look weak 

For Clint, watching back his journey on MAFS has been confronting and frustrating.

‘The commitment ceremonies were especially hard to sit through,’ he tells me.

‘They pushed this narrative of me being a doormat, someone with no voice who didn’t stand up to Lauren.’

A recurring theme of the show was Clint not being enough of an ‘alpha male’ for Lauren. In one particularly bizarre moment, she castigated him for doing chores around their apartment in her absence. 

A moment that left him particularly rattled was the infamous ‘shut the f**k up’ incident. The edit made it appear as though he directed the comment at co-star Jamie Marinos, but Clint insists that wasn’t the case.

‘I was saying it to the whole group because they were all coming at us,’ he clarifies.

‘If I had actually said it to Jamie in front of the experts, I’d have been called out immediately.

‘That’s not what happened. But the magic of editing changed the entire meaning.’

‘The experts perform for producers’ 

Clint then dropped a bombshell about the show’s experts, John Aiken, Mel Schilling and Alessandra Rampolla, who he alleges were being fed lines by producers.

‘They sit on the couch with earpieces in, waiting for words to come through from production. It’s not counselling. It’s not even a conversation. It’s scripted entertainment,’ he claims.

He describes moments where contestants would pour their hearts out, only to be met with silence as the experts waited for their next instructions.

‘It’s all orchestrated.’

Clint’s breaking point at the retreat

Things reached boiling point at the notorious couples’ retreat when tensions erupted between Clint, Lauren, Jamie and Dave Thomas.

‘Jamie and Dave were standing over us, yelling, pointing, swearing. I told them to “sit the f**k down” because it was getting out of control,’ Clint says.

‘I shouldn’t have sworn – but what else do you do when you’re being screamed at?’

He claims he apologised to Jamie multiple times – both on and off camera – but those moments never made it to air.

‘The audience only sees what production wants them to see. And in this case, they wanted me to look bad,’ he adds.

Production threats: ‘If you leave, we’ll ruin you’ 

Perhaps the most shocking revelation during our interview is when Clint reveals he and Lauren attempted to leave the experiment early – only to be met with disturbing threats.

‘We were done. We wanted out. But then we got a call from Nine, warning us that if we left early, they would make us the most hated couple on Australian TV,’ he claims.

Fearful of how their exit would be edited, Clint and Lauren decided to stay.

‘Looking back, we should have just walked. They stitched us up anyway.’

‘This show will end in tragedy if nothing changes’ 

Clint warns that MAFS, now in its twelfth season on Channel Nine, has reached a dangerous tipping point.

‘Every year, they push the drama further. If nothing changes, it’s only a matter of time before someone takes their own life because of this show. And it will be on their hands,’ he warns.

He also slams production for failing to remove contestants displaying aggressive behaviour – referencing Paul Antoine‘s outburst when he punched a wall in front of his on-screen wife Carina Mirabile.

‘We were told at induction that as much as a clenched fist would get you kicked off the show,’ Clint adds.

‘But a guy punches a wall in front of a woman and gets to stay? The double standards are insane.’

The future for Clint and Jacqui

Despite the chaos of MAFS, Clint and Jacqui are now focused on building a future together.

‘We’re looking forward to life beyond the show,’ he tells me.

‘We’re focusing on business, on each other – and on leaving this experience behind us.’

And as for wedding bells and babies?

‘Stay tuned. You never know what’s around the corner!’

NEW TO MAIL+? READ MORE MAFS EXCLUSIVES FROM ALI DAHER: 

Jamie and Veronica: did they bang? THE MAFS RECAP

By Eliza McPhee 

Carina gives Paul the ‘ick’ and supposed ‘Mr Nice Guy’ Dave has now found himself to be the biggest villain of them all as MAFS enters its final weeks.

This week saw the two strongest couples of the show, Carina and Paul, and Dave and Jamie, fall apart following the completely unhelpful ‘partner swap’ challenge.

But before any of that even unfolded, one couple, Lauren and Clint, opted to leave the experiment.

Lauren took the opportunity to throw out a flurry of insults, once again referring to the group as ‘boganic’ and ‘classless’.

‘Dealing with this absolute circus is mentally draining. You’re embarrassing. Please stop talking to me. Do we have a curtain we can pull across?’ she said.

Her sidekick Clint also told Jamie to ‘shut the f**k up’ before the pair revealed they had both chosen to leave.

In one final blow, Lauren wrote ‘Leav-ing the zoo’ on her card which prompted an uproar from her fellow caged animals.

All the other couples decided to stay, including on-again, off-again Awhina and Adrian.

Awhina said Adrian had been talking to her about making weekend plans and it was nice hearing he wanted to spend time with her.

The bar is quite literally on the floor.

The ever-confusing Jacqui and Ryan also seem to be going strong – well, kind of – with Jacqui impressed Ryan was complimenting her intellect.

‘It’s important because nobody ever sees me for what I am because I’m like a hot model,’ she said.

Veronica and Eliot also chose to give it another week despite the fact they quite clearly hate each other and V’s admission she put on a different personality during the retreat.

The next few days saw the couples take part in the ‘partner swap’ challenge, where they were each paired up with a different bride and groom.

Another sick game from the producers which expert John Aiken stressed was NOT to encourage them to stray… yeah right.

Carina burst into tears upon hearing her husband was being paired with Awhina, whose identical twin sister Cleo he previously dated.

Paul assured Carina there was nothing to worry about which I’m sure worked a charm especially when he accidentally referred to Awhina by her sister’s name.

Carina’s one rule was that they didn’t share a bed, which Paul obliged, but not before he started to have doubts about their relationship due to his bride’s sudden jealousy.

This coming from the man who literally punched a hole in a door after his wife joked about a rapper she’d slept with long before they even met.

Meanwhile, Beth was paired with Ryan who only just days earlier said she had no class when she asked why he preferred to pump iron than his wife’s ‘p***y’.

Much to the delight of Jacqui, she was paired with Jeff, the man she reached out to asking for advice on her own relationship weeks earlier – but only as long as he didn’t tell his wife Rhi.

Jacqui rocked up with a dress for Jeff to steam, which he did with a smile, as well as cooking her dinner and taking her out for meals. Eat your heart out, Ryan.

Veronica was matched up with Dave, also her top pick.

‘I’d be better matched with Dave and everyone else on this floor,’ she said.

In Veronica’s mind, Dave simply making eye contact with her was a step-up from Eliot who she claims always has his head buried in a book. God, what a monster.

Dave and Veronica went out for a drink and spent the whole time giggling like naughty schoolgirls. Did something more happen off camera we weren’t told about? Social media sleuths certainly think so

The producers decided to ramp up the drama by making the brides and grooms write honesty letters to their partners, which they only thought they’d have to read out to the person they’d been swapped with.

Paul, who viewers thought was head-over-heels for Carina, didn’t hold back in his letter where he described his wife as a ‘snob’ and ‘judgy’.

‘This gives me the ick,’ he wrote.

He also told Awhina that when he had revealed to his bride he’d dated her sister, Carina’s reaction was, ‘I didn’t know you went for that kind of calibre’.

Awhina was rightly pissed and Paul thought he was off the hook until he reunited with his wife and was informed he had to read out his letter.

He left out the part about calling her a ‘snob’ and when called out by producers over the admission, a stumbling Paul played into his French background and claimed he wasn’t quite sure what the word meant. 

But he left the letter on the table for Carina to read in full, leaving his bride rattled and confused.

True to form, Jacqui also unleashed on her husband, telling Ryan she thought he wanted a ‘tradwife’ but wasn’t ‘financially skilled’ enough to be the breadwinner.

When she questioned if he’d be happy being a stay-at-home dad, Ryan visibly recoiled and said the idea was beneath him.

‘It’s insulting you would even consider that,’ he said after listing off his LinkedIn history of jobs he’s had.

Eliot and Veronica’s reunion lasted all of five minutes before she stormed out of the room.

Viewers could be forgiven for thinking her letter was written by Dave, given the whole thing was an ode to him and a major ‘f**k you’ to Eliot.

It didn’t take long for Veronica to completely lose it, screaming at her husband, ‘I want nothing to do with you, I’m not interested in pursuing anything with you. You are beneath me!’

But the most shocking scene in this season was Dave’s admission he doesn’t have feelings for Jamie, who just last week told him she loved him.

She’d confided in Adrian about a lack of intimacy between them, to which he suggested was a sign Dave just wasn’t that into her.

Dave admitted as much when confronted by Jamie.

On the day of the dinner party, Jamie brought the issue up with her husband again and demanded to know where they stood.

But Dave didn’t have an answer, all but sealing the fate of their relationship.

Jamie was then left sobbing in the hotel room before rocking up to the dinner party alone.

‘Who is that man!’ she said after kicking Dave out. 

‘Even if you don’t have feelings for me, you know how I feel about you and that’s how you’re going to approach it? What the f*** is wrong with him? That’s disgusting.’

When asked by the producers how he felt about Jamie, Dave gave the absurd response: ‘I don’t hate her. I don’t hate her guts.’

He repeated that to his fellow grooms at the dinner party, who were as confused as Jamie was as to what went wrong.

More back-and-forth between the couple and more tears from Jamie ensued over the dinner, while Jacqui sat there with a grin, pleased not be in the spotlight for once.

But in a complete backflip, albeit prompted by the other grooms, Dave then declared he wanted to fight for their marriage.

Strong words from a man who simply shrugged when asked how he thought Jamie would be feeling.