MAFS’ Martha Has A Bitch About Paps Stalking Her In Bondi, Swears She Doesn’t Call Them On Herself

Contributor: PEDESTRIAN.TV

Married At First Sight Australia has been running for six years now but despite there being a host of folks who have appeared on the show, only a few are actually that recognisable, IMO. The most widely known / talked about MAFS stars consist of Jessika Power, Ines Basic, Cyrell Paule and Martha Kalifatidis, all of whom were invited to the recent reunion as they are stand-outs of the series.

Ines (left), Martha (middle) and Jessika (right) on their season of MAFS. (Credit: Nine)

Ahead of her appearance on Celebrity Apprentice Australia, Martha Kalifatidis stopped by the Shameless Podcast where she discussed everything from why she regrets doing MAFS to being stalked by paps in Bondi.

The hosts asked Martha what it was about the show that surprised her, and she said it’s the set-up shots (reality TV is staged? Get out of town!).

“When we’re filming a ‘wake up scene’, it’s not really us waking up,” Martha revealed. “Sometimes they’re shot at 3pm and by then we’ve already gone to the gym and had our breakfast, but we’re pretending that we’re waking up.

“Our producer would call and be like, ‘Where are you? Come back because we need to film a wake up scene!’” The dinner parties, however, are in “real time.”

“That was the most shocking part because when we would wake up in reality, that’s when the real shit goes down,” she said.

In terms of being followed by the MAFS photographers, she said she was “comfortable with a room full of grown men my dad’s age pointing there cameras at me,” but her partner Michael Brunelli had a “horrible” time dealing with it.

Martha Kalifatidis with her MAFS hubby Michael.

“As soon as the cameras would turn on, [Michael] would turn into a different person,” she revealed, claiming that his IRL persona is way more appealing than what we saw on-screen.

After MAFS wrapped, Martha Kalifatidis says she became a recluse as she struggled to deal with the fame.

“I was not a nice person, I was not nice to be around,” she said, adding that: “No one and nothing can prepare you for [post-MAFS life].”

When the hosts asked if she ever regrets doing the show, without missing a beat, she responded, “Everyday I regretted [going on the show], I was like ‘Why did I do this? I had such a happy life!’” She added that “hindsight is a beautiful thing.”

And as for the specific moments on the show that she regrets, you don’t have to guess which one lives rent free in her mind (and ours, TBH).

“The wine pour, I absolutely regret that,” she said. “But the thing is, I would never ever do that in my real life, but I feel like going into the reunion, I was a different person because earlier that day, Michael and I were just chilling, we had our normal day, then we filmed the reunion. When you’re filming in the experiment, you do have this on-screen person that when you start it, you can’t stop it.”

Martha Kalifatidis added, “Obviously production has something to do with it, not that they tell you what to do or say, but they kind of do and before you know it, you’re acting like someone you’re not.”

So when it came to filming Celebrity Apprentice Australia, she vowed never to let that happen to her, but unfortunately she fell into the producer trap straight away.

“No matter what happens, I will not be seduced by the producers,” she recalls telling herself ahead of filming. “Then day one I am there instigating shit. I was doing it again.”

The cast of Celebrity Apprentice 2021.

The discussion then turned to what it’s like being followed by paps, and have a go at this one, will ya?

“I’m really glad you asked this because I think a lot of reality TV stars make a deal with paps and journalists so they can be written about. I hate being papped more than anything, I live in North Bondi, our rent is astronomical, and do you wanna know how many times I’ve swam in the beach? Very minimal. And it’s very annoying because even Michael knows how much I hate being photographed when I don’t know I’m being photographed. I hate it so much. And they always sell the ugliest photo, they don’t sell the one where you’re half decent. I can’t ever go out to the store.”

Martha Kalifatidis also said that the paps are “always grown men, older men, there are one or two younger guys who aren’t too bad, but the older men are just weird. The other day we went for a swim, we did some work, and then my girlfriend called me [and invited me for lunch].”

She claims she was suddenly papped on a crate while smoking a ciggie with her mate on a side-street.

“Nobody wants that, unless they’re organising that and they want it, but I don’t know who those people are,” she said.

Have a listen to the full ep here.

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