Eliot reveals real reason he quit MAFS Australia and it’s nothing to do with ‘non-negotiables’

Just days into MAFS Australia 2025, new groom Eliot Donovan has already decided to quit. He left his new wife Lauren Hall on their honeymoon, just three days into the experiment.

During the show, he reeled off a list of “non-negotiables” in a partner, and it seemed as though those not being met were the reason he packed the show in. “There’s no upside for me,” he said in a clip from the show, moments before his exit. “It’s things that are important to me that just aren’t a match. This is just a result of that.”

Eliot then said there was no way he was staying because 37-year-old Lauren didn’t match his “non-negotiables”. Eliot listed that he wanted someone younger than him, oldest of 25. He wanted someone who wanted a “big family” and is “into exercise”.  He said he didn’t want someone who’s “into superficial things”.

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♬ original sound – Married At First Sight

However, speaking to Daily Mail Australia after his departure, Eliot has explained the real reason he quit MAFS Australia 2025 wasn’t all that. He said his exit was nothing to do with a major fallout with Lauren, or lack of physical attraction to her. He instead said it was because he didn’t see a future with her, and wasn’t going to stick around on the show just for the sake of it. Wait, is this someone who actually *doesn’t* want fame?!

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“I left because I didn’t find love. I was there to find love, and I didn’t see a future with Lauren,” he said. “Yeah, of all the reasons to leave, I think that’s a pretty fair one. It wasn’t because of anything physically wrong with her or anything like that. It was more just like a long-term thing, and I didn’t want to go through the motions and fight with this person for three months just to milk the opportunity.”

The publication then asked him if he’d lost faith in the experts and their matchmaking abilities. To this, Eliot admitted he was open to their advice in some areas, but not willing to compromise on certain aspects of his future. Ah, so those “non-negotiables” did play a small part, then.

via E4

“Not for things like when it comes to like having a family and stuff, I don’t, I didn’t wanna change… what I wanted,” he said. “Do you know what I mean? If it was something like, oh, we argue a lot, and that’s a problem, a hundred per cent I’d be open to hearing their wisdom about ‘oh, look, this is a way that you can communicate better’.

“It was more just like the fact that we had different goals in mind. So it’s either one of us is going to have to change what we wanted dramatically.”

All that being said, maybe we should have seen this sooner, because it’s also been revealed Eliot didn’t even realise he was signing up for MAFS. Yes – his heart was never really going to be in it!

In an interview with Yahoo Lifestyle, Eliot admitted he “never intended to go on a show like this”. He said he “never applied” and was approached by a talent scout on Instagram. Eliot actually thought he was being approached to go on The Block. This is an Australian reality series where couples compete against each other to refurbish a home. Just a bit different, then!

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