MAFS just aired a significant moment. It got lost amongst the drama.

On Monday's episode of MAFS, the experiment hosted a gay wedding — only the third same-sex marriage in the history of the show.

After a rough start to his MAFS journey (aka a runaway groom), Michael Felix finally met his prince in long-tressed hairdresser Stephen Stewart. Michael and Stephen met at the altar and sparks immediately flew between the grooms. 

And first of all, holy hell, what an attractive couple. Like... this show has never platformed more beauty (inside and out) within one pairing before. Fragrance campaign, when??

Michael and Stephen at their wedding reception (again omg, look at these two). Image: Nine. 

And they seem to be a damn good match.

Michael is an Ohio-born 34-year-old who hopes to start a family with his husband after previously providing sperm so his friends could have kids. Stephen is a 26-year-old from WA on the lookout for a monogamous relationship with aspirations to have kids and create a 'white picket fence' family unit.

As the first same-sex wedding in four years, this pairing was a significant moment in this year's season of MAFS. The last same-sex union was in 2020 and it was a disastrous match many fans would sooner forget, with Tash Herz and Amanda Micallef's marriage over before it began. The two women constantly clashed over their vastly different personalities and approaches to life, leading fans to wonder how the experts considered them a good coupling in the first place.

They'd broken up by the end of their honeymoon.

Then there were grooms Craig Roach and Andy John, who were wed in season two, but also split during their honeymoon.

Craig Roach and Andy John on the 2016 season of MAFS. Image: Nine. 

The clear incompatibility of the show's two previous same-sex couples has led to some criticism that the pairings were  perhaps tokenistic, and not a genuine attempt to put people together who could thrive in a relationship – though expert Mel Schilling insists that's not the case. 

"For us, it was really important to find people who genuinely wanted to find love. We didn't want to simply match people based on sexual orientation," she told Metro UK in 2022 of the casting process for creating LGBTQ+ unions.

Schilling added that the Australian series "got that horribly wrong" in the early seasons of the show. (You don't say?!)

In 2019, a spokesperson for Nine told Daily Mail Australia that it was a numbers game, explaining that while the show had received 10,000 applications from singles, only a handful came from gay applicants.

Whatever the reason, it's fair to say queer fans of MAFS haven't had much in the way of representative relationships that they can root for on the show. But based on what we've seen so far from Michael and Stephen, we have hope — this couple might just go the distance.

After Sunday night's episode aired, however, the majority of conversations rolling out across social media seemed to be centred around intruder bride Madeleine's conversations with ghosts during her wedding (as you might expect). It's not every day a former Home And Away-turned-medium star joins MAFS and brings along spirits to their nuptials. 

Cassandra's tiff with husband Tristan was also a major talking point, after the pair had their most dramatic argument thus far. 

But while these big 'drama' storylines were playing out, it's important to also remember the significance of the moment that took place in Stephen and Michael said 'I do'. The grooms' marriage is a milestone is for LGBTQIA+ representation on literally the biggest reality show in the country — and one that is definitely worth talking about.

Feature image: Nine.