Abbie Chatfield has slammed the Sit With Us podcast, hosted by Domenica Calarco and Ella Ding, a second time, jumping on her It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield podcast to clarify her feelings. This comes after the Married At First Sight (MAFS) duo attempted to unpack the “muzzle” comment with 2024 MAFS villains Tori Adams and Jack ‘Jacob’ Dunkley.
Like most participants on MAFS, after Dom and Ella failed to find love on the television show, they began a career in podcasting.
As this year’s season came to a close, the dynamic duo hosted a flurry of Season 10 contestants.
Most recently, the besties shared their platform with Jack and Tori, who’ve consistently pissed off viewers throughout the whole season. I mean, I’m pretty sure 50% of our MAFS reacts pieces are about all the fucked shit Jack said on national TV.
Following the publication of their interview with the villain couple, Dom and Ella received a shit tonne of backlash from fans via the social media snippets they’ve shared.
However, it was the video where they attempted to unpack Jack’s controversial “muzzle” comment that truly pissed people off.
Most notably, fellow podcast host and former reality TV star Abbie Chatfield also called out Domenica and Ella, saying the snippet made her “feel sick” in a series of Instagram comments.
Now on her own podcast, Chatfield has described just why Dom and Ella’s comments were so deeply problematic.
“When you aren’t questioning male violence or language that is violent, you are only being traitors to feminism,” she said.
“If you are listening to [their podcast], they are reinforcing the ideas that abusive men feed to you when you are being completely fucking brainwashed by an abuser.
“I don’t think those girls even know why the muzzle comment was wrong. I think that’s the biggest issue.”
Further into the podcast, she accused the girls of “doubling down” on their interview after they realised it was being criticised online.
“I am so fine with these two women to go ahead and have their reality TV recap podcast and for it to get all the numbers in the world, but to speak about sexual assault and verbal abuse in an unhelpful way, all you are doing is giving ammunition to abusers.”
To give you a bit of context behind the “muzzle” comment, it happened during a fucked dinner party on this year’s season of MAFS.
Lauren and Jack were in a heated screaming match which ended with Jack telling Lauren’s reality TV husband Jonathan to “muzzle your woman”.
The comment sent shockwaves across the nation, with many people calling for Jack to be thrown off the show. But unfortunately, the manbun man managed to stay for the rest of the season.
You can peep the jaw-dropping scene below.
On the Sit With Us podcast, Dom and Ella attempted to facilitate a discussion surrounding the word “muzzle” and how Jack used it. In the video, Ella said that Jack was “pushed” into saying the phrase.
“The lead up to [the muzzle comment] we saw that though,” Dom said.
“Like you were just getting pushed, and that’s what you said before in the interviews about knowing they just need someone to push you to your limit,” Ella added.
“She (Lauren) was that person who really pushed you.”
Dom added that they [the MAFS producers] “knew” that Lauren would be the one to “push” Jack to his limit.
“And they knew that, they would always put her in front of you,” Dom said.
After the official Sit With Us podcast Instagram account shared this snippet of the interview on social media, the MAFS besties quickly gained a lot of flack with many fans expressing their disappointment with the hosts.
“So the muzzle comment is justified because he was being “pushed” to it? Is any form of abuse justified because someone is pushed to it? I really like your podcast Ella and Dom but FFS this lacks substance and is so problematic!! Where is the feminism?!” one fan said.
“I used to listen to your podcast religiously and love you guys, but after a lot of marginal things have been said by each of you, this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back for me. You are further perpetuating misogynistic ideas and extremely HARMFUL excuses that are often used by men and society to dismiss DV and misogyny,” another person commented.
“Girls this is getting really really really disappointing,” wrote a third.
And then that lead us to Abbie Chatfield’s initial Instagram comments.
“Really disappointing to see the victim blaming here, and the allowance for a man to speak in such a dehumanising way about a woman because she … spoke too much?” Abbie began.
“I can’t believe I’m seeing you both dismiss what he said, because he was ‘pushed’.
“That’s the excuse for all abusive men. And what he did was verbal abuse. This is really worrying. Particularly in the current climate, this is really incredibly awful.
“I feel a bit sick to be honest girls. I’d take this episode down if I were you, apologise, and try to educate yourselves on the inner workings on patriarchy and how you have upheld it in this interview. I actually feel sick.”
Adding to her first statement, Abbie specifically called out Domenica for focusing on how bad the muzzle comment would look for Jack. She also shared that she’d sent them DM, but they’ve yet to respond.
The Sit With Us podcast has continued to receive an immense amount of backlash to their interview through their social media snippets of Jack and Tori.
PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to Ella, Domenica and the Sit With Us podcast for comment.
Abbie Chatfield has declined to comment.
