‘A weight lifted off our shoulders’: Jack speaks out about split from Tori after MAFS Australia

In his first interview since announcing he had split from Tori, Jack has spoken about what went down between him and his former girlfriend, and MAFS Australia wife.

Speaking to The Tab, Jack Dunkley said he and Tori were never really in love, and mutually decided they should just be friends. They’re still living together now, and he said if anything, get on better than ever.

Talking of his relationship with Tori after the show, Jack said “it was great” between them. “Even to this day, we’ve been open and authentic,” he explained. “We always had open communication. After the experiment, we were excited to dive into [a relationship] and go about it in real life.”

Jack explained he and Tori initially had plans to move in together around six months after the show, but he ended up asking her to move in after two months. “Things progressed pretty quickly back in the real world,” he said. “Things were going well, I realised I did want Tori around. I asked her, ‘How about you move ASAP?’ and she did.”

But, 18 months later and Jack and Tori had decided to end things romantically. Jack said they’d “never been on record” saying they were “in love”. Instead, they just said they “had a lot of love for each other.”

He told The Tab: “We’re not people who want to settle. We got on so well during filming, but we didn’t fall in love. You don’t fall in love in three months. We’re looking for that, and we still want that for each other. We just realised it wasn’t to be. We were just really, really good friends.

Most Read

Paul is apparently dating someone after MAFS Australia and erm, you might recognise her

A deep dive into Carina Mirabile’s many, many attempts at fame before MAFS Australia

The creepy real reason Netflix removed this Black Mirror episode over the weekend

“Tori and I were intimate and things went really well. We created a life for ourselves together. But, we just never found that deep love connection that we’re both looking for.”

Jack explained he and Tori “still spend loads of time together,” and still live together. “Even after we called it stumps on the relationship, yeah that week was a bit emotional, but things went back to normal. Just without the intimacy. We still go to the gym together, we still watch movies together. Cook dinner together. We just don’t have that love, and we’re not talking about our children’s names or future. It just never got to that stage.”

He said they now “get on like a house on fire” and are “really happy”, despite the breakup. “We had a weight lifted off our shoulders. We want to be life-long friends,” Jack said.

He said Tori will move out when she’s ready, and then they have plans to visit each other regularly, and will have days out together as friends. “I want to hang out with Tori. I want to do that when I’m 50, 60, 70-years-old, and we have our own families,” he said. “What we went through is enormous.”

Jack said his main purpose right now is to “preserve his friendship” with Tori, and he wants to “support her” in any way he can. Post split, the pair have been “hanging out more” knowing Tori may move out soon. Jack said he’s never been the sort of person to completely cut someone out when you break up with them, and that definitely would never be the case with Tori.

“You make a choice. You either break up and tell that person to leave, or you make a choice and preserve that relationship and the memories. That’s what we’re doing.”

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