Ganesh Kendale
A Married at First Sight groom has admitted he made a “massive mistake” during his time on the Channel 4 reality show.
Caspar Todd, a gardener from the New Forest, married Emma Barnes, a complete stranger that he had been matched with by a panel of experts.
He was heavily criticised both online and on the show for telling his new bride during their honeymoon that he had “rarely gone for the curvier person”.
Mr Todd told BBC Radio Solent that he had apologised “thousands of times” and would keep on apologising as “you don’t say something like that”.
He described their whole honeymoon in Jamaica as a “very bizarre situation” and said he was “feeling quite alone” and was just “trying to work out where the spark’s coming from”.
Married at First Sight is a social experiment, where single people marry total strangers, meeting for the first time at the altar.
In 2018, former contestants from Love Island and Geordie Shore warned about the impact being on a reality TV show can have on mental health.
They urged producers behind such programmes to offer better support to their contestants.
But Caspar praised the support he has received from the show’s welfare team, who he said have been in touch with him while the programme airs.
“Every day I have a call from the welfare team from Channel 4 and I also have access to a psych as well and they’re fantastic,” he said.
“So if I really am struggling, and I’m not going to lie when you’re thrust into it, and then everyone starts knowing who you are and you’re being recognised in Tesco and that sort of stuff, it becomes quite a lot.
“So having that support network behind you, who are going to just pick up a phone to you and say yep, we’ll sort you out, it’s been great.”
The show is still being broadcast so Caspar cannot say whether things worked out in the end with his wife Emma.
But he was clear on one thing, he was unlikely to be popping up again on our screens anytime soon.
“No,” he said with a chuckle. “I probably wouldn’t do reality TV again – given the option.”
