EXCLUSIVE: Beth Kelly opens up about her ‘nightmare’ experience doing the partner swap challenge with Ryan Donnelly.

MAFS’ Beth Kelly has revealed what it was really like living with Ryan Donnelly. Photos: Channel Nine

Married At First Sight fans were shocked this week when the show’s experts re-introduced the controversial partner swap challenge. The task, which forces participants to spend three days with another bride or groom in the experiment, is designed to give couples a fresh perspective on their relationship.

While there were plenty of people who felt uncomfortable living with someone else, Beth Kelly appeared the most hesitant to say goodbye to her partner Teejay Halkias and move in with Ryan Donnelly. She and Ryan had previously clashed at the couples retreat when he called her “classless” and they had a major blow-up at the recent dinner party which wasn’t shown on TV.

Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle about her “nightmare” experience living with Ryan, Beth admits things got so bad she experienced her first anxiety attack.

“I’m not an anxious person, but I had so much anxiety. Like, as soon as Teejay started reading out that letter my chest started getting tight and I had a bit of an anxiety attack in Ryan’s apartment, I’ll be honest,” she details.

“He just made me so uncomfortable and I just didn’t want to be there. So it was actually worse than I expected because I thought I’d be able to handle it better, but I was just so overcome with anxiety that it was just awful.”

Beth says it was a ‘nightmare’ spending three days with Ryan. Photo: Channel Nine

Beth reveals what happened ‘after the cameras left’

Beth explains that she already felt “so uncomfortable” living with Ryan given their tense history, and things only got worse when he used the hard-hitting questions task to confront her.

“That really sent me because I felt like he did attack me a little bit and came for my character. I felt like if you’ve got someone coming into your apartment, into your home, you do everything you can to make them feel comfortable,” she says.

“After the cameras left, we did try and make small talk and get to know each other a little bit but it was still quite a bit awkward. We definitely weren’t besties and it was hard because sometimes I’d see a good side of Ryan, but then he did that task and I was like, okay well you’re clearly not a nice guy. We just tried to make the most of it, but he was still very uncomfortable and very weird.”

Pros and cons of the partner swap task

Despite the “awkward” experience, Beth admits that the task gave her much more appreciation for her partner Teejay.

“I remember actually texting him while I was living with Ryan saying ‘I miss you’ because I think it just made me realise how comfortable we were with each other. So I guess that kind of just strengthened my relationship with Teejay,” she shares.

Looking back, however, Beth wishes she stood up to Ryan and was “more of a boss b***h” when he asked her such confrontational questions.

“I think because I was so anxious and I just didn’t want to be around him, I kind of let his questions slide a little bit. Now, I wish I had gone back and been like, ‘Don’t you speak to me like that, love!’,” she remarks. “Hindsight’s always a great thing.”