When Craig Roach agreed to marry a complete stranger on a reality show, he had no idea he was walking into his “worst nightmare.” Now, he’s blaming the show’s producers for ruining his life and giving him PTSD.
Roach recently took to Facebook to share his experiences on the Australian reality show Married At First Sight, which he appeared on back in 2016.
The premise of the show is pretty straightforward: Producers pair up couples, who then marry each other after meeting for the first time.
To make a long and, frankly, predictable story short: Roach appeared on the third season of the show, where he married a man named Andy John. The marriage didn’t last. And now Roach says he feels “emotionally raped” by the experience.
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“I was 150% invested in the so-called experiment,” he writes, adding he had “complete faith” that the producer’s had his best interests at heart. But “the slaughtering that I endured was inhumane and downright humiliating.”
Roach goes on to say he met with producers to discuss exactly what he was looking for in a man. He told them he wanted a non-smoker, non-drinker, who cared about leading a healthy lifestyle and didn’t party too much.
“I wasn’t looking for Mr Perfect,” he says. “I just wanted someone who shared my lifestyle choices.”
Well, that’s not what he got.
Roach writes:
They matched me with a chain smoking, binge drinking all round party boy from hell who hadn’t been to the gym or raised his heart rate naturally in 10 years. So after months and months of anticipating the meeting of this supposed amazing man I am confronted with the complete opposite and have 6 cameras recording my every reaction.
Despite being paired up with the exact opposite of what he had asked for, Roach still went through with the wedding.
In his Facebook rant, Roach details not just their awkward wedding day, but their horrible first night in bed together, which he describes as “downright torture”, and their inevitable demise.
“I didn’t think in my wildest dreams that it would have been this tragic and I was left feeling emotionally raped,” he laments. “Never had I ever been so tired and drained in my life.”
He continues, “I invested my heart and soul into the process of the show I was hoping I found the man of my dreams unfortunately i was matched with my worse nightmare on every level.”
Read Roach’s entire rant below.
So after much thought and the fact the maggot #andyankers / wankers that they set me up with has spoke out and it’s is…
Posted by Craig Roach on Sunday, April 22, 2018
Chrisk
What did he expect? Where would the fun be if the producers matched him up with somebody that was perfectly for him.
howardmarc
When you start with it being an experiment, you are doomed to fail. Relationships are hard. My husband and i are together for 26 years. Everyday is a learning something new about each other.
bowlingbutch
He wanted to be on TV and now he is trying to extend his 15 minutes of fame. Why would any sane person expect something like this to have a happy ending. So Boo Hoo. Crying now he has PTSD. What a load of BS!! He is coming across as an idiot.
Erik
I’m feeling sorry for Andy, frankly.
PinkoOfTheGange
He is most likely a total romantic and very trusting person.
The production team is going to be fun in depositions trying to pretend they didn’t know what kind of guy he is.
They should of passed on him.
radiooutmike
Honestly, I do believe him. Partaking in a marriage, no matter how much it’s a sham, is going to be emotionally.
My issue is that he did sign up for it and unless he was a fool; he should have had a fair amount of foresight to think that this was the most probable outcome of this experiment.
genericbrand
Wait, marriage equality didn’t exist in Australia until this year. They clearly weren’t really married…besides contractual obligations to the show, why not walk away ASAP afterwards!?
eeebee333
I guess he wants another 15 minutes.
Bob Amsel
I completely sympathize with Craig. When he signed up for this “experiment”, he never suspected that the producers would intentionally supply him with a “spouse” who was the opposite of every value he lived by, just to produce more conflict and drama. (I also sympathize with the “spouse” who wasn’t in on the producer’s deception either.)
Andrew
None of the couples are wedded on the spot due to the Aus Marriage Act of 1961. The participants filled in an Intention to Get Married form before the TV show wedding and in 1 month (after the show has ended) they can submit this form to legalise their marriage. I do feel sorry for the guy. Recently in Oz many ‘reality stars’ have spoken out about how the show they’ve appeared on was all set up with dialogue and set scenes, none of it was actually ‘real’.
Again, NONE of the couples are married on the show, the only thing keeping him (or the other couples together) was prob the contract to appear on the TV show as a couple.
PinkoOfTheGange
Thx for taking the time to give us a clarification.
chris33133
Why would ANYONE marry someone the first time they met? This is so ridiculously mind boggling!
This guy’s problems go way deeper and go-back way farther than his marriage and subsequent divorce.
MonkeyMan
Measuring by the metaphors that Craig Roach uses, I’d safely assume he’s a spoiled drama queen and completely out of touch with reality. He thinks he’s really great and attractive and that he deserves someone young, attractive, fit and wealthy, and “of course” some TV producers can just make that happen.
I can assure anyone reading this article that nobody “raped” Craig emotionally or gave him “PTSD”.
The producers can’t force you to get emotionally invested or have sex with the person you marry, that decision and the consequences of that are yours.
Craig just found Andy incredible unattractive physically and thinks there’s some prince charming hunk hiding in the producer’s closet that they didn’t present him with.
What a load of bull!
joxx67
I cant say i have much sympathy for this man. He married a total stranger. What did he expect? No one forced him to make this stupid choice. He needs to man up and accept the consequences of his own actions
Roy Moss
This is another example of how you really just can’t fix stupid.