Married at First Sight Australia 2025: How much this year's MAFS Aus contestants will be paid

The cast of season 12 of Married At First Sight Australia has been announced, and so has the release date of the show in both Australia and the UK. So we know we don’t have long to wait until we see all the drama unfold on this year’s series.

We also know that the show was actually filmed during last summer, and that the brides and grooms have already given weeks - or possibly even months - of their life to the experiment - all in the hope of meeting the love of their life. We’ve already delved in to where the MAFS Australia 2025 filming locations are, including the wedding venues, honeymoon locations and dinner party venue, and found that you can stay at the luxury Sydney apartments which the couples move in to for the duration of the show.

While they’re there the contestants give up their normal lives, from their work to their social engagements - dedicating their lives completely to MAFS. But, how much will each of the contestants get paid for their appearance on the show? Keep reading to find out.

How much do MAFS Australia couples get paid?

The answer to that question depends on who you speak to. In early 2024, an anonymous source from 2024’s season 11 of MAFS spoke to The Daily Telegraph saying they were “broke” after the show finished. They told the publication that they’d been paid $150 (£122) a day and given $125 (£102) for food.

They said: “I am broke after having appeared on the show. I couldn’t even make my rent payments with what we were being paid. We would film late so I would be ordering takeaway most nights. I spent a bomb on outfits, hair, and make-up, and to top it off, they didn’t even let us wear what we wanted. If someone was wearing the same colour as someone else, they would make you change.”

They added that the financial impact was harder on some than others, depending on what their job is: “And anyone who runs a business on Instagram is struggling because they can’t post anything.”

Former contestant Nasser Sultan, who took part in the show in 2018, also previously told Now to Love that the stars are paid “$150 (£122) for the day.” But, he said that’s not the only financial aspect that contestants have to take in to consideration. “On top of that, you have to pay expenses – your living expenses with the woman that you marry,” he revealed. “It’s not $150 clear. You still have to pay rent if you’re renting, you’ve gotta pay your rego and it’s 12-hour filming days.”

He also alleged that some contestants were paid more than others, implying that this was linked to exactly what happened in their relationships and the airtime they subsequently got. “Sarah [Roza] and a few others, like Davina [Rankin], got more money. They got $50 more a day. Basically, the more you did for the show, the more you got.”

MAFS Australia 2023 groom Jesse Burford, however, said contestants were paid slightly more. He took to Instagram in May 2023, saying that participants were paid “$1,175 (around £965) neach week”.

Olivia Frazer, who was a bride in the show in 2022, also spoke out, claiming they were paid “$1,100 per week” while fellow 2022 bride Domenica Calarco went on TikTok live and claimed she was paid “$150 a day”. She added: “I still had bills, had to pay my rent, and I had to pay, you know, whatever.”

However, Mikey Pembroke , who took part in 2020, previously spoke on the I’ve Got News For You podcast and claimed that participants didn’t earn anything. “You don’t get paid at all – this is a thing that needs to change,” he said. He did than acknowledge, however, that while he and his fellow contestants were provided money to “live off” during filming. But, he said the amount barely covered their day-to-day spending. He did then say, however, that he finished the experiment with “about 1,000 bucks” profit.

So, all-in-all it would seem likely that the brides and grooms all get given money for their general day-to-day living costs, possibly to the tune of around $150, but they don’t get an additional fee simply for being on the show.

We’ll have to wait and see if any of this year’s brides and grooms speak out about how much money they have been given after season 12 airs.

• Married at First Sight Australia season 12 begins in Aus on Monday January 27. It is expected to air in the UK around a month later.