MAFS UK’s Ella didn’t want to be someone’s ‘dirty secret’ so applied as first trans bride

MAFS UK is finally back and since the new brides and grooms were announced last week, we’re all collectively counting down the days until it’s back on our screens. Before the new season has even started, MAFS UK trans bride Ella has already won us over with her caring nature after explaining how close she is with her nan, describing them both as the dynamic duo.

Being the first trans person to appear on the show, Ella spoke to the Tab about her struggles in past dating experiences which knocked her confidence, including not wanting to be “someone’s dirty secret”.

Ella told The Tab she was “blessed” that Channel 4 made the decision to cast her, for both her and her community. She said she “didn’t think for a second” that they would even put someone trans on TV “let alone me”.

But speaking about her own dating experience, Ella said she’d struggled to find someone in the past because of her transition and that a lot of men don’t accept it, which led her to take the plunge as a MAFS 2023 bride.

She said: “A lot of guys don’t accept it or you’re someone’s fetish or someone’s dirty secret. I’m proud of myself. And I don’t want to be kind of hidden in the closet. I was in the closet for many years and now I’m out I’m staying out but I just didn’t want to be someone’s, like I don’t know, like a fetish I guess.”

Ella also explained how she can also be picky and that she has a type, but previously felt like she wasn’t in a position to. She said that guys in the past would date her but claimed that their family and friends “wouldn’t get it” when it came to introducing her to them.

“It’s not my fault society isn’t educated and they didn’t get it. I’m just like one of the normal girls. I’ve just had a slightly different life.”

Speaking of gender reassignment surgery, MAFS UK trans bride Ella also spoke of the stigma around dating as a trans woman and said that the procedure didn’t change this behaviour from partners: “I thought that when I had the downstairs done it would change it – it did not change it.”

Dating in the past for Ella mainly compromised of flings and a serious-ish relationship, but looking back she now realises he was too “embarrassed to introduce her to his family and friends”. Now wanting to get married, Ella’s now turned to the experiment to find her husband, saying she has to do this as she “can’t do it by herself”.

Along with getting married and finding love, she aspires to be the first trans person to have an underwear line and become a TV presenter, so hopefully we’ll be seeing a load more of her after MAFS UK.

For all the latest Married at First Sight UK and Australia news and gossip, iconic memes and the best quizzes, like The Holy Church of MAFS on Facebook.

Related articles recommended by this author:

• Introducing Ella: The first trans bride on Married at First Sight UK

• Ella says when dating before MAFS UK she was fetishised by men for being trans

• Thomas Hartley tells us his brutally honest verdicts on the new MAFS UK cast

Featured image via @ellamorganc on Instagram