What really went down with the messy relationship of MAFS’s Reiss Boyce and TOWIE’s Dani Hope

Okay, so by now you’ve probably heard that the MAFS UK 2025 groom Reiss Boyce used to be in a relationship with the TOWIE star Dani Hope. Here’s a proper deep-dive into how they got together, and what went wrong. This is essential backstory for making sense of MAFS UK 2025.

Reiss and Dani go way back

If you’re uninitiated with TOWIE, Dani is the one who had a moment of fame this summer for snogging both Ben and Tommy from Love Island 2025 on the same night. Impressive.

So, after years of build-up, Dani dated her TOWIE co-star Roman Hackett for approximately a month in spring 2023. In April, she told The Sun: “I am seeing someone else now to be completely honest. We knew each other before the whole me and Roman situation, we were kind of seeing each other. I called it off with him because I started seeing Roman. Then this whole stuff happened off camera since we’ve been filming that stopped me and Roman from speaking again and then I started seeing the boy that I started seeing before.”

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A post shared by Dani Kara Imbert (@daniimbert)

Apparently he slid back into her DMs as soon as she finished filming TOWIE. By April, they were “pretty exclusive”.

She confirmed in May that this mystery boy was Reiss, and they went Insta offiicial.

The couple officially split in May 2024

In December 2023, it looked like Dani and Reiss had broken up. She unfollowed him on Instagram and purged her page of him. According to Closer, Dani also shared a very passive-aggressive quote that read: “You’re rare, so people are gonna fall in love with the idea of having you, but most of them aren’t used to rare, they’re foreign to it, so they’ll lack the capacity to treat you as such. And that’s were they lose you.”

A source told The Sun: “It’s not looking good between them. Obviously there is always the chance of reconciliation but right now, Dani is done and seeing herself as a single girl.”

Although in May 2024, Dani posted a pic of her having ice cream with a mysterious man. The arm does rather look like Reiss. TOWIE viewers speculated they could be back together.

(Image via Instagram)

Reiss did explain during his intro on MAFS that his last big relationship ended after “the bickering became too much”. He then added: “When a girl leaves you, you feel abandoned and lost.” We don’t know for certain whether he was alluding to his relationship with Dani.

It’s been claimed they rekindled their romance right before he went on MAFS

Er, the plot thickens. But it seems Reiss was still speaking with Dani right before he went on MAFS.

Apparently, a source told the Daily Mail: “Dani had been dating Reiss from early 2023 until May 2024, when they briefly split because she feared he was more interested in fame than their relationship.

“Despite the split, they continued seeing each other in secret and were still together in March 2025, when, without Dani knowing, he began filming Married At First Sight UK. Reiss told Dani he was going travelling and promised they would reconnect and become official again.

Reiss and his new bride Leisha on MAFS
(Image via Channel 4)

“Dani now feels hurt and betrayed; they had been in a long-term relationship, and Reiss had led her to believe they had a future together. In reality, he was filming a dating show and would go on to marry another woman.'”

Erm, apparently Reiss really did tell Dani that he was travelling when he was really filming MAFS. Dani told Closer she was “happy for him” but wouldn’t be watching the show.

According to Channel 4, Reiss did have an on-and-off relationship with TOWIE’s Dani, but they split long before filming for MAFS UK 2025 started.

Reiss said: “Dani is a great girl but it didn’t work out for us romantically. I will always think a lot of her and wish her the best, but when I signed up for Married at First Sight I was single and ready for commitment.”

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Featured images by Channel and @daniimbert.