Awhina says Jake apologised twice after MAFS ranking and now she’s the one feeling guilty

During MAFS Australia 2025, we saw groom Jake make some gross comments about the other brides in the picture ranking challenge, some of which were aimed at Awhina. In the task, Jake was presented with a picture of every bride, including his, and told to rank them in order of attractiveness.

Whilst most of the grooms ranked their bride first and said very little about anyone else, Jake out of nowhere suddenly had a lot to say. And none of it was good. He said Jacqui had “crazy eyes” and Sierah looked like she “could stab you in your sleep.” After this, he rated Awhina.

“I’m not racist or nothing. I like Caucasians mainly, mostly,” he said. “Awhina she’s not exactly like — she’s Māori I think — probably why she’s a bit higher, the physical features.”

Following his shocking comments, Awhina has revealed how she felt when she found out what had been said. She called them “hurtful and disgusting” and said in an interview that since, Jake has apologised but she didn’t accept.

via E4

“I don’t feel like he was trying to be malicious, even though [it was] a really insensitive comment,” she told PEDESTRIAN.TV. “You can do that challenge, like a lot of us women did, without kind of saying, ‘This person had crazy eyes,’ or ‘I’m going to place this person here because I’m not attracted to people who aren’t Caucasian.’

Most Read

Influencer who refused to give crying child her plane seat reveals REAL reason she’s suing

Influencer who’s suing over a screaming toddler on her plane sparks debate about plane etiquette

Harry Potter actor resorts to starting unexpectedly niche OnlyFans account to ‘get out of debt’

“Like there are so many other ways he could have approached that. I think he made a mistake. I’m not justifying him any way. I don’t actually think Jake’s a bad guy. His self-awareness just wasn’t there at that moment. And I do feel for him because I feel like at times we all say inappropriate things.”

via E4

Speaking of Jake’s apology, Awhina added: “Right off the couch at the commitment ceremony, he walked straight up to me. He came up to me and said out of everyone he wants to apologise to me because it was taken out of context, and said, ‘You were really pretty however, I don’t normally go for XYZ.’

“I feel really guilty. Usually, someone apologises, I take it but in the moment when he was trying to apologise to me, it was still very raw to me, and I was very unaccepting.

“I kind of turned around and said, ‘I’m not the one you need to apologise to your wife [is] over there.’ So I do feel guilty though, I didn’t give him that platform at the time to apologise.” She added he’s apologised a second time since then, and she now feels much less angry about the situation.

For all the latest MAFS news, scandals, gossip and updates – like The Holy Church of MAFS on Facebook.