A gay man in Australia feels totally used and abused after he wasn’t cast in the upcoming season of the hit reality show Married at First Sight Australia.
Wil Karroum is a gay Muslim man living in Melbourne. He says he was “strung along” by producers for almost half a year before they ultimately rejected him in an email.
“I understand rejection is a part of life,” he tells Daily Mail Australia. “But I feel like I’ve been played as a fool and had a carrot dangled in front of me.”
The premise of Married at First Sight is pretty straightforward: Random couples are paired up. They meet and get married all on their first date. Then audiences watch as the relationships quickly crumble.
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Karroum says he was told “over 1,000 gay people had applied” for the show’s upcoming season, so he was confused when producers said they couldn’t find him a match.
“I foolishly believed the process and I genuinely want to find love,” he laments.
Karroum also says he filled out countless questionnaires, participated in several phone interviews, and was even invited to meet an executive producer during the casting process.
He says some of the questions he was asked during that meeting were “very intrusive” and “severely personal,” including one about his favorite sexual position, but he went along with it in hopes of finding a husband.
“I’m a gay Muslim man and I get no support from my family,” he says. “I need all the help I can get.”
To add insult to injury, Karroum says he canceled a pre-planned holiday and postponed moving as he waited to find out whether he would be cast.
Then he got the devastating email saying he had not been selected to appear on the show.
Producers say over 10,000 people applied to be on the show, but only 20 or so of them were LGBTQ, not 1000 as Karroum claims.
“There weren’t a huge number of gay applicants, but we interviewed quite a few individuals from around Australia,” a spokesperson for the show explains. “Unfortunately, we didn’t feel there was a good enough match. We didn’t want to include a gay couple just for the sake of appearances.”
QNews reports that Karroum may have actually dodged a bullet by not being cast. Married At First Sight featured a gay couple, Craig and Andy, in 2016, and their marriage was a total disaster.
The relationship only lasted a few days and resulted in Craig saying the whole experience had been “downright torture” and left him with PTSD.
“I didn’t think in my wildest dreams that it would have been this tragic,” he said afterwards, adding the he felt “emotionally raped” by the entire experience.
Related: Man who married complete stranger on reality TV says he feels ’emotionally raped’ by the experience
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Because EVERYONE knows finding your soulmate is ONLY possible thru a scripted “reality” show…
dwes09
It’s kind of amazing how many people seem to think that’s true.
Seems unlikely anybody could find love in that situation, and yet look at the number of people who go on the bachelor franchise programs over and over and lament how they can’t find “real” relationships.
AydenRodriguez1411
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stardusty
A man who auditioned for a reality show and didn’t get on is news? This happens every day, all the time. It’s normal. How entitled does this guy think he is that he needed an article written up about the experience?
dwes09
This site is not about “news”. Its a gossip/news/opinion blog site just like the Daily Mail from which the article is taken. And nowhere is it implied that he felt he “needed” an article, though clearly some editors both here and in Australia thought it was amusing enough to warrant it.
jrdubz
The entertainment industry in general, and Reality TV in PARTICULAR is brutal to the point of being sociopathic. It sounds like the casting experience was re-traumatizing for him… and the experience of rejection dredged up the pain of past experiences of rejection throughout his life. I hope he can get connected to a good therapist and supportive community where he lives!
witchboybrian
There was never any guarantee he would be cast – and it seems unbelievable he really thinks he was going to get a successful marriage with a stranger on a reality show.
I do find it unbelievable that they had 10000 straight applicants and only 20 from LGBT people.
Raphael
At first sight it does seem a little stupid, but reading the article, he does have a point. To stall him for months, subjecting him to countless interviews, extremely personal and invasive questions… Only to be dismissed by e-mail with the ridiculous excuse that over 10.000 people, only 20 (really!?) were LGBT? It’s life, I know, but he does have the right to feel that way, they really made a fool of him for nothing.
iminheatlikeacat
Guessing you’ve never worked on a reality or talent based show. This is a
completely normal process
Raphael
@iminheatlikeacat If you think that asking someone about his favorite sexual position, among other extremely personal and sexual things, for a show it’s “normal”, then you have problems… Also, the main point of my comment was that, to say over 10k applied and only 20 were LGBT, is ridiculous. And even if it was true, when they saw that gay people weren’t applying for the show, why would they continue to interview him multiple times and ask those questions!? That’s not normal, that’s just creepy… Someone was having fun at his expense. He should contact some of those 10k heterosexual people, and ask if they were questioned about their sexual preferences as well, ’cause I doubt it.
iminheatlikeacat
@Raphael
Posted a long ass reply that took me a fair bit of time to write out but Queerty decided not to publish it. Blah, whatever. But, you’re wrong. And yes, it is completely normal to ask those types of questions to everybody who makes it so far into auditions. It’s just the way it works.
Rex Huskey
yep, you’re a fool.
Jackoff.ca
OMG it’s so hard finding someone. Why on TV would it be different?
InGayDating
Sooo being on a reality TV show is a right now? I hope for his sake he’s just doing this for publicity.
Brian
A man that handsome should “blast” somewhere else. 🙂
nm4047
I think this maybe the 1st time I have read a headline on this site that is correct. The man is a fool. Muslim, gay, now be prepared to be ridiculed by other tabloid shows and papers. Idiot, even thinking of ‘auditioning’ for such a show demonstrates lack of intelligence.
RollingRocker
Such a handsome man with a great smile!
If he has a great personality too, I’d marry him.
Brian
He’s whining about not getting cast on a reality show and supposedly genuinely thought he’d find love there. That’s neither a sign of a great personality, nor intelligence.
thisisnotreal
Ok maybe I’m coming at this from the wrong perspective but one thing he said stuck with me and raised some question marks. He said he’s a gay Muslim and his family doesn’t support him and he needs all the help he can get…so if he’s Muslim and his family doesn’t support him, what part of him going on a national tv show to marry someone he met one time is going to do ANYTHING to help that whole situation between him and his family? If my being gay caused a rift between me and my family and I needed support from other people and (I’m assuming) I wanted to try and find common ground with my family to repair the rift between me and them, you know what I WOULDNT do? Go on a highly publicized tv show where I’m paired up with a random gay stranger and then expected to marry him after one date all for the amusement of the audience. I get that this dude wants support and a husband and maybe to repair some of the issues between him and his family, but the way he attempted to do that was about as far off from sensible as he could have done. I’m sure there’s some truth to what he said but my hunch tells me that part of his reasoning was for money and publicity and less about finding “help”.
Jerry
He’s a cat person, too bad.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
From the article: “To add insult to injury, Karroum says he canceled a pre-planned holiday and postponed moving as he waited to find out whether he would be cast.”
Dummy, are you seriously asking us to believe that you didn’t plan for the possibility of rejection and what you were doing to do if things didnt work out? You sound like a young silly kid who runs off to the big city hoping to be the next Queen of the drag scene only to learn upon arriving what the cost of living is and their jobs skills do not pay a living wage. Not matter WHAT it is always have a plan B just in case reality appears when chasing after a dream.
BGinBigD
Miss Karroum, poor thang, you must be pretty high on the desperate meter if you think you’re going to find love on Married At First Sight. Bless your heart! You’d probably have better luck finding love with an Arab.
darkanser
I’m sure he won’t be alone for much longer.