EXCLUSIVE: Awhina sheds some light on her controversial decision to remain in the experiment.

MAFS’ Awhina Rutene / Adrian Araouzou.

MAFS’ Awhina Rutene has explained why she went to Final Vows with Adrian Araouzou after Wednesday night’s dinner party. Photos: Channel Nine

Married At First Sight’s Awhina Rutene has spoken out about her intense experience on the reality show and explained why she ended up going to Final Vows with Adrian Araouzou. Viewers were left baffled watching Wednesday night’s episode when Awhina stormed out of the final dinner party and declared that their relationship was over, only for her to be included in a promo for Sunday night’s episode.

Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle about her sudden change of mind, Awhina hints that the reason why she ended up staying in the experiment was because she was persuaded by production.

“Like always, there are a lot of voices that enter your relationship, a lot of external voices, and we ended up staying,” she says. “I actually said to them [after the dinner party], ‘Look, it makes sense. He said he doesn’t want to go, I don’t want to go, we’re done!’. I wish that was the end.”

Awhina claims she was regularly told during filming that “it wouldn’t make sense” if she quit the show, which is why she hoped that their failed demonstration of loyalty in the Final Test challenge would mark the end of their relationship.

“I felt like I had something tangible to put in front of him like, ‘Maybe we can leave amicably because we both did it, not one or the other needs to be vilified. We both did this challenge because we both don’t believe in this relationship and we have some compatibility issues’,” she explains.

Awhina admits that during the experiment she would often use long distance or the fact that she has a son as excuses for why they wouldn’t work, but there were “many other reasons” why they weren’t compatible.

“We didn’t have the same core values, our communication styles were so different, our emotional intelligence was so different, and Adrian was a very selfish person whereas I wasn’t,” she remarks. “It took such a toll on me, that relationship, but I hid behind that challenge because that was something tangible people could see without me attacking Adrian’s character.

“I was looking for an out, and I was pleading for an out where I didn’t have to go to war with Adrian to get one. Or where I didn’t have to go into an environment and be fake and not true to myself in order to protect Adrian. I was hiding behind a shield.”

MAFS’ Awhina Rutene.

‘I was pleading for an out where I didn’t have to go to war with Adrian to get one.’ Photo: Channel Nine

While Adrian has received plenty of backlash on social media for the way he’s treated Awhina throughout the experiment, she asserts that she hasn’t found any enjoyment in his downfall.

“When everyone was turning on him, I didn’t like that. Yes, I went through such a tumultuous journey, but I’m not going to relish in someone being attacked by multiple people online,” she says. “Everyone was hating on him – and rightfully so, his behaviour was poor and he has to live with himself. But that doesn’t make me feel good about myself.

“I just wanted to live my life, do me and move on. And when all this hate was coming out, what people didn’t see is that it also gets directed at me too.”

The mother-of-one admits she’s “trying to still be supportive” of Adrian as the season comes to an end because she feels like she has “a lot of power in [her] hands”.

“Even though it’s going to look bad on me and you don’t deserve it, I still want to help you because I’ve got a community at home. I’ve got support, I went back to a job, I went back to beautiful friendships, I went back to a community. Whereas, what have you gone back to? When I met you, you had one friend, and now you don’t even have that one friend anymore,” she shares.

“I’ve got this beautiful life, what have you got? So I thought to myself, Awhina, you’ve got enough in you to kind of lessen that burden for this person.”