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This is Exactly How Much Married At First Sight Contestants Get Paid
by
Basmah Qazi
Channel 9
Another season of “MAFS” has wrapped up, with 20 new brides and grooms dedicating months of their lives to the social experiment. Despite being done and dusted for another year, the contestants are still dishing out details of what went down during filming. And one lingering question that continues to surface is: how much do they get paid?
There’s been speculation swirling for several seasons of the controversial show, with former contestants speaking out about their payments. While nothing has been officially confirmed, we kind of know the roundabout answer.
So, How Much Do MAFS Stars Get Paid?
Jesse Burford, who appeared on Season 10 of the show, spoke candidly about his earnings during the filming period. During an Instagram Q&A on his story, the Perth wedding celebrant confirmed to his followers that he earned “$1175 each week” while filming.
That’s a slight bump from the previous season where Season 9 bride Olivia Frazer said contestants were paid “$1,100 per week.”
While her rival, Domenica Calarco, admitted that her salary was “about minimum wage” during an interview on The Kyle & Jackie O Show.
“It’s enough to cover your rent, living expenses, etc. Because when you live [on the show] everything is taken care of,” she said. “You don’t have to pay anything. That’s about maybe like an average salary, I’d say.”
Meanwhile, season five’s Nasser Sultan told Now To Love they got “$150 for the day, that’s it”.
“But on top of that, you have to pay expenses – your living expenses with the woman that you marry,” he said.
“It’s not $150 clear. You still have to pay rent if you’re renting, you’ve gotta pay your rego and it’s 12-hour filming days.”
Related: All the Best Twitter Reactions to the Premiere of “Married At First Sight” 2023
Nasser went on to clarify that the money the cast receive is more of a daily allowance. So they’re not being “paid for work” but rather the money is to cover expenses.
“That’s what you live on,” he said. The former reality TV star went on to reveal some other secrets that many would find quite surprising.
“None of our groceries were covered,” he said. “They filmed us going shopping and we had to shop at the same grocery store – which was really expensive, but it was out of our own money.”
“Gab and I would sometimes spend up to $70 a day on just living, so we didn’t have much left after that.”
But $150 was the minimum amount you could receive, with Nasser revealing that some of the other couples (especially the brides), were receiving more than he was.
“Sarah [Roza] and a few others, like Davina, got more money,” he revealed. “They got $50 more a day. Basically, the more you did for the show, the more you got.”
Money wasn’t the only perk the brides were receiving.
“The girls would message companies on Instagram and ask for free clothes to be sent to them, and so we’d be sitting there and these deliveries would show up.”
“Basically, they were getting everything that they wanted. If they cried, they got counselling, and to stay on the show, they asked for more money. It worked out really well for them,” Nasser claimed.
“Married At First Sight” airs at 7.30pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
