Awhina tells ‘I sacrificed so much’
mafs final test awhina adrian sitting side by side

For the first time in Married At First Sight history, all the participants left in the experiment are given an offer as one final test – would they like to go on a date with a new match just before the final vows? Not surprisingly, the decisions made result in some spectacular blow-ups at the very last dinner party.

This week on MAFS, it’s the “Final Test”, where the couples are separated and each person is asked if they’d like to meet a compatible single who was part of the initial audition process. It’s not what Kiwi bride Awhina Rutene is expecting so close to the end of the experiment.

“I got really upset because I was so taken aback by what the actual task was,” confesses the Perth-based aged-care worker, 30, adding that she and her husband Adrian Araouzou had been on a “tumultuous journey” and had just started to find their connection again. “It didn’t feel like that connection was far enough along for where we were in that journey.”

At that point, Awhina admits, she had “so many doubts” about Sydney business owner Adrian, 30. “There were so many times where he would just do something that would hurt me or upset me and I just couldn’t explain to him how or why. He just didn’t really listen to me. But in saying that, there were these good moments in between all the crazy moments. There just had to have been.”

As for whether Awhina, who has a six-year-old son, wishes she’d been paired with someone other than Adrian, she confesses she “can’t help but have those thoughts”.

Getting teary, she says, “I sacrificed so much to do this experience. A lot of people probably did go on MAFS for ulterior reasons. I was really sold a fairytale. I was so excited for this journey and it was so much harder than I thought it would be.”

Before going into the last dinner party, Awhina and Adrian talk about the Final Test, with Awhina revealing that Adrian was “very blasé” about it all.

The couple put on a united front as they arrive, but will it last?

“We went into that night and we weren’t in a good place,” she explains. “It was very telling in how we held ourselves and how we communicated with each other. It definitely did get intense at that final dinner party. There was a lot of raw truth. It blew up.”

Married At First Sight Australia screens 7pm Sunday to Wednesday on Three and streams on ThreeNow.