Married at First Sight UK brides tell BBC they were raped by on-screen husbands

ShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleBBCNoor NanjiBBC Panorama Warning: contains details of alleged sexual offences and misconduct Two women have told the BBC they were raped during the filming of one of Channel 4's biggest shows, Married at First Sight UK, while a third has described an allegation of a non-consensual sex act. The show did not do enough to protect them, they all said. Channel 4 was aware of some allegations before broadcast, and all the episodes featuring the women continue to be available on its streaming service. Reacting to our findings, the chairwoman of a new creative industry watchdog described Married at First Sight UK's format as "televised abuse". She is now calling for an independent investigation and says the "dangerous" show should be taken off air. Channel 4 said all the allegations are "wholly uncorroborated and disputed". When approached by the BBC on Monday, Channel 4's outgoing chief content officer, Ian Katz, said he had not seen the Panorama documentary, adding: "They are obviously very serious allegations. We want to see the show and when we see the show we will respond." Lawyers for CPL, an independent production company which makes the UK version of the show, said its welfare system is "gold standard" and industry-leading, and that it acted appropriately in all these cases. Billed as a "bold social experiment", Married at First Sight UK - known to many as "MAFS" - sees single people agree to "marry" total strangers, after meeting for the first time at their mock weddings. The marriages are not legally binding, but viewers see the couples go on "honeymoon", before moving in together and navigating their relationships - all while being filmed, almost every day. The three women we have spoken to are all making allegations about the men they were partnered with and said that they are speaking to the BBC because they feel they should have been better protected. One said she wants CPL to stop "allowing harm to come to people". Married at First Sight is a highly successful global TV franchise. Many couples say they enter the show with the aim of finding love. Others are seeking social media fame. The UK version, which has been running for 10 seasons, is broadcast at prime time on Channel 4's sister channel E4, with all episodes available on the streaming service All4. Audience figures often top three million, making the show one of the jewels in Channel 4's crown. The latest season has already been filmed and is expected to air this year. "I don't think that because you're going on reality TV, you deserve in any way for things like this to happen to you," said Shona Manderson, the only woman of the three who is identified. On screen, the couples talk to relationship experts about how the "marriages" are working. Away from the cameras, like many TV productions, CPL said it vets contributors before casting, carries out psychological checks, and provides oversight by a trained welfare team and access to psychologists and ongoing support. The allegations uncovered by Panorama are "disturbing" and "incredibly worrying", said one of the country's leading women's safety charities. "The tragic reality is that violence against women and girls does not discriminate and can impact anyone, even if they are being watched by millions on national television," said Women's Aid. One of the women, whom we are calling Lizzie because she wants to remain anonymous, said she noticed "red flags" about her partner on the show almost immediately. We are also withholding some details to protect her identity. Anyone who makes an allegation of rape is entitled to anonymity by law. During the "honeymoon", Lizzie said her onscreen husband often lost his temper in private. "He would just explode, he would go into this absolute focused anger," she said. Off camera, Lizzie said he told her that he and his ex-partner had been "violent" towards each other. Feeling worried, Lizzie told CPL's welfare team. Lawyers for CPL told us that when welfare spoke to her onscreen husband, he told them he had been the victim of violence, not the perpetrator. They said CPL discussed this with Lizzie, who told them she did not feel at risk. By then, Lizzie had already started sleeping with her onscreen husband, but she said the sex soon turned violent. He would bruise her during sex, she said, even though she "kept saying stop". Lizzie said at first she was too scared to tell anyone. "He said that if I told anybody what had happened, that he would get someone to throw acid at me," she said. She said that, while they were alone, she tried to speak to him about "bringing everything up" with the onscreen experts but he "threw a temper tantrum and threatened to leave". "We were in our apartment, on the sofa, and he tried to have sex with me. And I kept saying no, that I didn't want to do it. "But he kept saying, 'You can't say no, you're my wife'. And he just did it anyway." Lizzie described what happ

Married at First Sight UK brides tell BBC they were raped by on-screen husbands

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