Welcome to the vindication of Jacqui.

As we move beyond the halfway point for this season's Married at First Sight, there's a feeling that's starting to permeate through the episodes.

This show is hitting like it once did. Haven't we done this before?

It makes sense. MAFS has been doing this for a long time, with the 2025 season introducing the twelfth bunch of hopeful brides and grooms. It's been over a decade of couples breaking up and making up, and the series shows little sign of falling out of favour in the ratings, still pulling more than 1 million viewers every episode.

But has the magic gone? Season 12 is not landing quite the same as the show once did, relying on a formula that may have worked in earlier seasons, but is falling flat in 2025.

One trope that continues to rear its ugly head is the 'crazy woman' edit.

Women getting the 'crazy edit' is basically Married at First Sight's bread and butter. You know what I'm talking about.

A woman is shown being manic, overly emotional, or nasty throughout the season, with selective editing to paint them at their very worst.

Whether it was Selin Mengu in 2022, being edited to the point that her storyline made no sense, or Melissa Sheppard being characterised as a 'hornbag', or Alyssa Barmonde as the one who repeatedly said 'I have a child' in 2023, these women's story arcs are often played off as the 'crazy wife' who the 'normal husband' has to tolerate or tame.

Melissa Sheppard copped a bizarre edit on her season. Image: Nine.

For the 2025 season, we had Jacqui Burfoot and Morena Farina. These women's edits have heavily featured their more outrageous moments, leaving out a lot that would make them both more sympathetic characters.

Even intruder Veronica Cloherty has copped a rather questionable edit lately, magnifying her more dramatic reactions while minimising Eliot Donovan's part in causing such a response.

But this season, some of these women aren't staying quiet.

"My character makes no sense — that's not my fault! Blame the editors," Jacqui posted on an alternative Instagram page.

She said viewers were watching a "highly edited fictional storyline" and that she "can't sit back and support misleading and deceptive stories."

Jacqui has been particularly vocal about her experience on MAFS, which often contradicts her narrative on the show.

On her social media pages for her jewellery company, Jacqui has been sharing claims and text messages about what happened in her relationship.

In a recent post, she posted a clip of Ryan Donnelly's couple-swapping task with intruder Beth Kelly, writing that during the experiment Ryan would watch anime for three hours every day, sitting at the dinner table with his laptop.

The clip shows Ryan shovelling food in his mouth as he stares at his laptop, barely registering that Beth is in the room.

Jacqui's claims of Ryan creating an uncomfortable environment have finally been substantiated by another bride as Beth has spoken out about her experience with him.

@jacquelineleejewellery

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"I'm not an anxious person, but I had so much anxiety," Beth told Yahoo Lifestyle about their three days together.

"He just made me so uncomfortable and I just didn't want to be there. So it was actually worse than I expected because I thought I'd be able to handle it better, but I was just so overcome with anxiety that it was just awful."

Beth said she regretted not standing up to Ryan when he came at her with intense questions during the task.

"I think because I was so anxious and I just didn't want to be around him, I kind of let his questions slide a little bit. Now, I wish I had gone back and been like, 'Don't you speak to me like that, love!'," she recalled.

Jacqui has been making claims against Ryan for weeks now, but she's been edited to look crazy. With Beth to back her up, are we finally going to start paying attention?

Another bride who has raised questions over her 'crazy woman' edit is Morena.

She shared her side of the story through a DM to ex-groom, Harrison.

"I never said those words. The camera isn't even on me when that audio plays. Hilarious!" she said, going on to claim that one of her scenes was spliced together from "two separate parts of a larger conversation."

We have previously contacted Channel 9 for comment on Jacqui and Morena's claims. Earlier this year, we asked them about claims of franken-biting and this is what they said.

"When they're put on air, they can either like it or not, but it is essentially an accurate portrayal of what's going on," John Aiken said.

"And what we've realised now, over the last few seasons, is that some participants will put their hand up and be accountable and say that's me and others will just blame the edit, and you can't really control it."

More generally, the early focus on chaotic couple, Jacqui and Ryan was out of step with what most viewers want to see.

Watch the couple's photo-ranking challenge. Post continues after video.

The couple dominate the episodes, but I'd hazard a guess that most of the public don't feel particularly invested in their storyline.

It also doesn't help that Jacqui has confirmed they're not together as she's now dating intruder, Clint Rice.

But drumming up the chaotic couple narrative is something the show has increasingly resorted to.

The move is similar to Sara Mesa and Tim Calwell monopolising last season. The producers kept showing viewers their constant fights and reunions, but the public never bought them as a legit couple so the stakes were too low.

Then there are the season's villains, another formula that MAFS has built on year after year. Instead of focusing on one or two villains, the show seemingly has a new villain every episode, whether it's Eliot, Tim, Morena, Jake, Ryan, Jacqui or Adrian. And now… Dave?

At best, it's hard to keep up. At worse, it's hard to care.

Listen to The Quicky discuss the MAFS contestants gone rogue. Post continues below.

Then there's all the cheating storylines the producers are trying to make happen. Whether there was any romance going on between Adrian Araouzou and Sierah Swepstone is unclear, but it was obvious their relationship was exaggerated.

More recently, a cheating storyline between Veronica and Dave was alluded to in feedback week.

Once again, this is falling back on the 'cheating scandal' narrative that has become a staple of almost every MAFS season since that non-date between Davina Rankin and Dean Wells took place in Season 5.

Last year, cheating accusations were levelled at Sara Mesa over allegedly seeing her ex, before the season's drama was eclipsed by Lauren Dunn accusing Jono McCullough of texting fellow bride, Ellie Dix.

In 2023, cheating was at the forefront of most of the major conflicts.

The very first episode began with a cheating scandal with Harrison Boon potentially having a girlfriend the day before his wedding to Bronte Schofield.

Then Claire Nomarhas was involved in a cheating scandal after smooching another groom, Adam Seed, behind her groom's back.

The 2023 season was dominated by cheating claims. Image: Nine.

There was a forced cheating scandal explored between Cam Woods and intruder Tayla Winter before the season ended up with another couple-swapping with Duncan James and Evelyn Ellis debuting their relationship.

Of course in 2022, there were intruders Carolina Santos and Daniel Holmes, dating behind the backs of their actual partners, Dion Giannarelli and Jessica Seracino.

Cheating narratives clearly drive drama, but in 2025 viewers are no longer going to buy some of these overblown narratives.

Finally, another MAFS formula that's a bit tired in 2025 is bringing back contestants to remarry.

Previous seasons have brought back the likes of Lizzie Sobinoff, Michael Felix and Jessica to be matched a second time.

In the case of Michael and Jessica, both of their grooms dropped out of the show, so they were invited to do a do-over.

For Lizzie, she was matched with Sam Ball, who body-shamed her and cheated with Ines Basic in 2019. The following year, she had a second wedding to Seb Guilhaus.

Lizzie's second chance at love felt earned on her season. Image: Nine.

This year, viewers and the 2025 contestants have been left baffled by the fact that Eliot was rematched in the experiment after ditching his wife, Lauren, on their honeymoon.

This decision by production clearly has a lot more to do with increasing drama than righting any perceived wrongs committed, which is what drove the previous remarriages in the experiment.

Of course, the season isn't all bad.

The dinner parties continue to deliver a lot of drama, with every episode stacked with argument upon argument.

The early dynamic that played out between Katie Johnstone and Tim Gromie was gripping viewing, reminding the audience that when MAFS is good, it's better than anything else on TV.

Prior to this week, Jamie and Dave were a loveable couple that Australia can get behind, so hopefully, they stick around long enough for their relationship is fleshed out as the season unfolds.

Luckily, there is plenty more season to come and if MAFS history serves, there's always another relationship shakeup around the corner.

Feature image: Nine.

This article was originally published on February 20, 2025 and has since been updated with new information.