Married At First Sight’s first lesbian couple to legally marry: ‘A lesbian fairytale come true’
Married At First Sight UK (Matt Monfredi Ltd/Channel 4)
Married At First Sight’s Jenna Robinson and Zoe Clifton are planning to legally marry, saying “it’s a lesbian fairytale come true”.
Speaking to The Guardian about reality TV marriages, the couple said they are still together and are planning to make their MAFS union – which is not legally binding – official.
The couple, who are the only pair from the 2022 series who are still together, said their relationship has gone from strength-to-strength and that they’d like to get married again “without 50 TV cameras”.
Their vow-renewal ceremony at the end of the series was “more meaningful” than their blind marriage, and they are looking to get hitched on their original TV wedding date.
Jenna said: “We’re still planning our future but when we’ve got a family, we can show our kids the moment our eyes first met. It’s absolutely wild.”
Zoe added that being first lesbian UK couple on Married At First Sight “came with a weight of expectation”, but they have received many supportive comments.
“You feel an obligation to represent and I wasn’t sure how,” she said. “Later, I realised that just showing a healthy, respectful lesbian relationship on TV is enough.
“We got so many messages from mums who gained an understanding of what their daughters were going through.”
The year after Jenna and Zoe appeared on MAFS, the show made history with its first trans contestant: Ella Morgan.
Ella was initially matched with Nathaniel, then began the experiment again with JJ after their marriage went south, bringing viewers to tears when she came out as trans to her cast mates at a dinner party.
“I don’t expect you guys to understand or get me,” she said during the episode. “All I ask is that you respect me and treat me as the person I am. I’m not ashamed to stand here as an openly transgender woman, where there’s so much negative stigma about trans people.”
While Ella’s career has taken off, with the star set to appear on Celebs Go Dating, last September, she has also spoken about the transphobia she received after starring in MAFS, saying she would “take a step back” from social media.
“I don’t always read the comments any more because of the transphobia,” she wrote on Instagram. “I can take it, I’m resilient to it. I’ve heard it enough times by now. But it’s not fair on my family, who didn’t ask for all of this.”
