Brad should never have been allowed to return to the MAFS reunion after his past behaviour

The MAFS UK reunion brought back everyone from the series so far for a dinner party, and that was a big mistake. Included in the members being brought back was Brad, who was removed from MAFS UK after showing “controlling” behaviour towards his wife Shona.

Throughout the series Brad was seen to start being more emotionally manipulative towards Shona, escalating to the point where Channel 4 stated that their relationship was “deemed unhealthy.” Brad told Shona to “shut up” multiple times and spoke of his right to “allow” Shona to be angry.

Women’s Aid put out a statement regarding Brad’s behaviour saying: “It is really important that the experts on the show called this out as controlling behaviour and challenged Brad’s view that it was acceptable to say that he had the right to ‘allow’ Shona to be angry.

“TV programmes like these, which are based on the formation of relationships, need to be aware of the dynamics of controlling and coercive behaviour, and always send a clear message that it is wholly unacceptable.”

And yet despite Channel 4 removing Brad for his unhealthy behaviour, it allowed him to return for last night’s reunion, despite the fact it was filmed after he had already been removed from the experiment. As if it wasn’t already bad enough that Channel 4 allowed him to return, Shona had to sit next to him, which must have brought up some traumatic memories for her.

Shona has previously spoken out about how much Brad negatively impacted her, describing how he “love bombed her” and told her “he never loved me, it was just a TV show, it was lust and he never had any emotional attachment to me whatsoever.”

The rest of the cast of MAFS UK greeted Brad as though he had never done anything wrong. The grooms in particular were seen hugging him and looked genuinely happy to see him at the reunion. Brad has previously claimed that he was “very very misunderstood” on MAFS UK, and I can imagine that his positive reception only reinforced that belief.

The inclusion of Brad in the reunion brought nothing of merit to the show and only proved that a man can “emotionally manipulate, belittle and gaslight” a woman on national TV and face zero long-term consequences. If Channel 4 are going to claim that “the welfare of all contributors on Married at First Sight UK is our top priority” then it needs to show us that.

Channel 4 and Women’s Aid have been contacted for a statement. 

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