After re-watching Owen and Michelle's Married At First Sight journey, should legal MAFS weddings return?

The show was a little different then to how viewers know it now - there were no dinner parties, no commitment ceremonies and no tasks set by the experts. Instead, the couples simply married and moved in together and, in more of a fly-on-the-wall documentary style, cameras followed what naturally unfolded between them. In Owen and Michelle’s case, it was true love. They have also since welcomed one of the 28 MAFS babies. Their daughter, Jessica, was born in December 2023.

Unlike the couples who appear on the show now, Owen and Michelle did legally get married just moments after they first met. The format of the show was changed for the sixth season in 2021, which saw producers adopt the format of the Australian version of the show which is what we see today.

So, as the pair celebrate their milestone wedding anniversary, I decided to re-watch their wedding episode to see what the couples who will marry on MAFS series 10 later this year could learn from the only successful UK couple who really did marry at first sight.

To begin the episode, the expert who matched them, Paul Carrick Brunson, tells the cameras that asking strangers to marry may seem like an extreme answer to their dating dilemmas, but it forces them to commit in a much deeper way and get something much more long lasting. That’s definitely true for Michelle and Owen. As a side point Paul, who is also the face of another hugely popular Channel 4 dating show Celebs Go Dating - certainly did an excellent job putting the Jenkins together.

The reactions from their family and friends when they tell them of their decision to marry a stranger are much the same to what they are now; shock and disbelief. Michelle’s mum Anne starts crying while her sister Kat starts laughing - both choosing different approaches to the ‘you either have to laugh or cry’ famous quote.

The emotions of the bride and groom ahead of their wedding day are much the same too; there’s excitement, nerves, panic, as well of tears of joy and worry. Or, should I say they seem the same on the surface. When I watch Michelle and Owen’s wedding back, I realise their emotions are much deeper than those we see displayed from the MAFS couples now.

Michelle in particular is clearly very anxious, in a raw and genuine way that just isn’t seen in today’s couples. But that’s because they know they are about to legally commit to each other and that means if it doesn’t work - as seen with the other couple to appear on their series Sheeran and David - they will have to get a divorce. They know that would be very costly, both financially and emotionally. I can feel Michelle’s hope, but also her fear, through the TV screen. It is lovely to watch how Owen, who is a very calming presence, instantly reassures her. The first sign this couple are going to go the distance.

These are emotions the MAFS brides and grooms just can’t feel in the same way anymore because they know they’re not really gettting married, so the level of risk involved simply isn’t the same. It’s kind of ironic that the show has become much more dramatic since the experiment became much less risky.

The marriage between Owen, a Sheffield IT worker, and Michelle, a teacher from Sussex, is beautiful. They make traditional vows to each other and then, after their ceremony, they sit together to share basic information - their hometowns and jobs for example - and they also share sweet compliments. There’s no drama, no misleading edits, no cuts at crucial times, no cliffhangers - instead it’s all just very wholesome . . . and, well, real. It’s a heartwarming watch.

So, it begs the question, is it time for MAFS to return to this format and should the couples legally get married again? Owen and Michelle have said since that they always treated their relationship seriously because they were truly married. Only three couples have stayed together in the last four series of MAFS, since the show’s format changed, but is that partly because couples know deep down that there’s no consequence if they don’t stay together, and that means they’re not willing to work through their issues?

No, I don’t think so. After all, Owen and Michelle were the first success story from the UK series. That means there were couples from series one, two, three and four who legally got married and ultimately got divorced. So, the success rate doesn’t relate to whether or not the couple are legally binded together. I’m not surprised that there were only a two couples per series in the first five series, however, and then from series six onwards there has been at least seven pairings per series. Of course not as many people are brave enough to actually put a ring on it for real!

I enjoyed nostaligically watching Owen and Michelle’s wedding again - I did watch it when the show first aired five years ago but I couldn’t remember it clearly. It’s made me realise there’s certain parts of the old format I miss and certain parts I’m glad have changed.

I wish we still saw the same genuine emotion in the couples as we did then, but on balance I don’t think that’s enough to make the weddings legally binding again. I say that because of the extra pain the other couples who didn’t work out from the first five series - of which there are at least nine - must have had to go through by getting divorced.

But, I’d like to see the return of the fly-on-the-wall approach. The series now, as much as I love it, is actually so staged. I hadn’t realised quite how staged it had become until I re-watched Owen and Michelle’s wedding. Now, drama is created where there is none due to the edit, everything is a big spectacle, and brides and grooms are placed in situations or required to do tasks which will undeniably create issues. As viewers, we know this isn’t really done to help the couples learn more about each other, as the experts like to say, really it is done to partially construct scenes for entertainment. And I say that as someone who loves MAFS and watches it religiously.

Owen and Michelle’s relationship development was natural - as sadly as the deterioration of the unions of the other legally wed couples - but either way that feels more enjoyable/heartbreaking to watch. There will always be compelling and dramatic scenes when you all of a sudden bring two strangers together in a romantic relationship, whether they’re married or not, so I do think that the MAFS producers could ditch some of the engineered elements of the show and let the couples evolve more naturally, like Owen and Michelle did, without, for example, being made to complete certain tasks each week. It’s more fascinating to see how humans respond to each other without being prompted.

Having said that, I like that the couples are now brought together at dinner parties on a weekly basis because it must have felt very isolating for the couples from the early series who were going through their journeys independently. I also like the fact that commitment ceremonies have been brought in because that regular contact with the relationship experts has undoubtedly helped couples in a multitute of ways over the years and they do ensure the couples are fully in the process.

Plus, these extra elements, and the fact there are now lots more couples taking part, mean the series is now much, much longer, and that can only be a good thing. Series five was only four episodes long, and each episode was only an hour. Four hours of MAFS and that’s it seems like utter madness now. Series nine, the most recent had a total of 36 episodes and they were all at least an hour long - some were even an hour and a half. Long may this series run time continue.

Overall, I think this year’s couples should look at Owen and Michelle of a shining example of what can happen when the MAFS experiment goes very right - and they should adopt their serious approach to the show and they should treat their marriage as if it is real, though it’s not.