Married at First Sight UK slammed by Women's Aid for casting man accused of abuse as calls for his scenes to be axed grow

One of the grooms who has signed up for the show, which will begin on E4 on Monday September 16, has been hit with multiple allegations of abuse. Alex Henry, aged 28, has been branded a “domestic abuser” by one person, and also a “dangerous individual”.

The allegations first came to light a week ago when E4 shared reels on their Instagram page for each of the contestants in the upcoming dating show, which sees single strangers, who have been matched by relationship experts Paul C Brunson, Mel Schilling and Charlene Douglas, meet and marry before undergoing various challenges and tasks to see if genuine connections can flourish. Since then, viewers have been campaigning for him to be removed from the Channel 4 show. The show, however, was recorded months ago so Henry has already participated and cannot actually be fully removed. The brides and grooms are not revealed until shortly before the show airs. So, a petition has also been shared calling for Henry, who is a personal trainer and also works in aviation, to be edited out of the show.

One user called Shannon wrote: “ @alexander.henry_ should never have been allowed on this show. In situations where people are marrying each other at first sight, allowing a domestic abuser to join the show is not acceptable at all. I have seen first hand the damage that this man has done. Something needs to be done about this situation. @e4mafsuk @e4grams domestic abusers should NOT be provided platforms.”

She is said to be campaigning on behalf of a friend who previously dated Henry. In another comment, she wrote: “We have messaged, pictures, videos everything required and we have not yet received an update on the urgent matter that you are investigating. We are petitioning to not have him aired on this show as he is a dangerous individual @e4mafsuk @e4grams.”

Many other women have also written messages on a similar nature. A Channel 4 spokesperson responded to the women directly with a message that read: “MAFS UK was filmed several months ago and is not live, so Alexander will feature in the programmes that have been edited and are due for broadcast later this month. There will also be promotional activity on the channel’s social media platforms during this time, in which Alexander may appear.”

When approached by The Sun, a Channel 4 spokesperson said: “MAFS UK contributors are subject to rigorous background vetting, including multiple independent psychological evaluations and a criminal record check before they can be cleared to take part.”

Women’s Aid have now condemned his involvement in a lengthy statement, saying the decision to feature him is both “disappointing and concerning”. The full statement read: “Women’s Aid wrote: “We are incredibly disappointed and concerned to hear that producers of Married at First Sight have taken the decision not to remove an alleged abuser from the latest series.

“Having seen the direct impact of abusive behaviours displayed on the show in previous years on survivors, we would have hoped that protection and tolerance levels for abuse would leave no room for perpetrators to be given a platform again, with their actions being televised as “entertainment”.

“Sadly, this decision demonstrates the lack of awareness that the production team still has when it comes to domestic abuse. At Women’s Aid we would urge the producers to reconsider how they approach this, for the sake of the contestants to whom they have a responsibility to protect; and to signal to survivors that the entertainment industry takes their experiences seriously.”

In response a spokesperson for Channel 4 said: “The welfare of our contributors is of paramount importance and, as such, we take all allegations of unacceptable behaviour seriously. We are aware of a single allegation against a Married at First Sight UK 2024 contributor and we have responded directly to those who came to us with that allegation.

"As part of our responsibility to safeguard our contributors, everyone taking part in MAFSUK undergoes a rigorous vetting process, involving a criminal record check and multiple psychological evaluations, before they can be cleared to take part. The DBS (criminal record) check carried out on the contributor raised in the allegation was returned clean. We cast contributors based on the information we are legally able to access and we continue to review this process to ensure checks are as thorough as legally possible."

Henry, who is from Birmingham, has not responded to the allegations against him but he has been posting promotional material for the show on his Instagram page.

This is not the first time the show has been hit with controversy over the behaviour of one of the stars. One of the 2022 grooms on the show George Roberts was arrested on suspicion of controlling and coercive behaviour in September of the same year, shortly after the show was filmed. No further action was taken against him.

On last year’s show, Brad Skelly was asked to leave the show after concerns were raised by the experts about his behaviour towards his bride Shona Manderson. At the time, Channel 4 confirmed that the couple were asked to leave the experiment after their relationship was deemed "unhealthy".

In a statement shared with Mail Online at the time, Channel 4 said: "The relationships on Married at First Sight UK are closely monitored off screen by production and an independent psychologist. If any of the relationships develop in a way that is deemed to be potentially unhealthy for either party, we would take expert psychological advice as to whether it was time for them to leave the process.

"The welfare of all contributors on Married at First Sight UK is our top priority and we ensure that appropriate support is available to contributors at all times during filming, including 24/7 access to a member of the welfare team or psych support.”