EXCLUSIVE: Awhina on what really happened at that controversial MAFS lunch.

If you've been keeping up with Married At First Sight, you'll know that watching Awhina and Adrian's relationship over the past few weeks has been painful for everyone. From Adrian's constant eye-rolling and dismissive behaviour, to Awhina's increasingly frustrated attempts to get literally any emotional response from her husband, it's been a journey.

But this week on MAFS, we watched what can only be described as a masterclass in gaslighting, as Adrian's friend and his twin sisters tag-teamed their attack on Awhina.

Look, we've seen some uncomfortable MAFS moments in our time. But watching three women pile onto another woman while defending... checks notes... a man who left his wife because he wasn't included in the show's promo? That was something else.

Speaking with Mamamia, Awhina opened up about the intense confrontation she experienced at that dreaded lunch and all the turmoil that persisted between her and Adrian while on the show.

Watch Adrian and Awhina's lunch with their family and friends. Article continues after video.

"I just felt defeated. I felt like I'd chosen to leave. Adrian made the decision to stay. Going out to a friends and family lunch, your family should have been there to support me and encourage me to give you another chance. I didn't walk into that," she explained.

"I walked into what felt like an interrogation. I felt like more people were taking away my voice… a voice that I didn't even really have at that point. When I sat down and the loaded questions started being thrown at me, I was like, 'what's the point?'"

Awhina went on to add that there was one curious moment from the lunch that was completely cut from the episode. And it all makes sense now.

"What was removed from last night, is when I brought up the promo. I brought up Adrian leaving, and they shut it down instantly," she said. "They didn't even give me a second to go on with how I felt. It was like, 'No, that's not what happened.'"

The drama started at the wedding. Image: Nine.

And because this is MAFS, of course there's more to the story.

According to Awhina, this wasn't just some organic show of support for Adrian. She suspects that Adrian had actually coordinated with his sisters and friend on how they planned to approach the conversation with Awhina.

"It felt like it was rehearsed. It felt planned. It was a premeditated attack," she claimed.

"I'd actually texted my twin sister that morning and I told her to go easy on Adrian… and then when his sisters and best friend Jasmine started asking me these loaded questions and not even giving me the opportunity to respond or express how I feel — there was just zero empathy on any end."

What was especially shocking to Awhina (and, let's be honest, the rest of us watching and screaming at our TV screens) was how Adrian didn't even try to defend his partner from the verbal attacks.

"You're showing me your true character at this moment," Awhina reflected.

"He was relishing in the moment. That's the disappointing thing. You're meant to be here for each other, we don't need to come at each other."

The lunch scene has since been heavily criticised online, especially after Adrian's group made several snide comments about Awhina and her twin sister, Cleo, all while gaslighting the twins when they reacted.

"I'm being reactive to situations consistently not caused by me," Awhina said.

"What upset me the most is you could see it in my body language, you could see it in the inflammation in my face. I've obviously been crying, and for three women to come in there and behave the way they did and turn it all on me. I thought I'd move past those feelings, but it's quite raw right now."

"I'm being reactive to situations consistently not caused by me." Image: Nine.

In an uncomfortable moment, one of Adrian's sisters made some particularly horrifying comments, joking that Adrian couldn't 'polish a turd' and she referred to Awhina and Cleo as 'trash'.

"It was just nasty, and it wasn't needed. I'm broken enough as it is at this point, and you want to leave and call my twin sister and I trash and turds? I just don't understand the need for the name calling," she said.

But in an interesting turn of events, Adrian's friend, Jasmine, has posted an apology on social media for her behaviour and shared that she is no longer friends with Adrian.

"Jasmine reached out a few days ago to Cleo and I and apologised prior to last night's episode airing. When someone reaches out to me and apologises, I genuinely want to accept people's apologies. I don't want to hold on to that resentment," she said.

However, after watching the scene play out, it dredged up some raw feelings.

"I'm a little disappointed, disappointed that she hadn't reached out earlier. It shouldn't have to take seeing Adrian's behaviour on TV towards me up until this point to go 'Maybe I've made the wrong decision'," she said.

"As much as I really do appreciate that she's holding herself accountable now, I would have loved for that accountability to have come a lot earlier."

And for those of us who have been watching the show since the beginning, we know the hostility towards Awhina at that lunch was part of a much bigger issue. In fact, from the beginning, Awhina sensed Adrian's lack of interest, given he hardly ever asked questions about her life, in particular, her son.

"I asked a lot of questions, and I felt like there was zero interest on his end. I think the bare minimum would be to be ask about my child," she said.

Awhina revealed that she had a hard time communicating with Adrian altogether, given his "aggressive" communication style.

Awhina revealed she had a hard time communicating with Adrian. Image: Nine.

"I did struggle. I feel when I would say, 'I'm feeling hurt or a type of way', Adrian would receive that as an attack. And because of that, he would go into defence mode, and he would always try to attack first. His fight style was just very aggressive," she said.

So much so, that Awhina would have to resort to bringing their issues to the group in order to get Adrian to take accountability for his actions.

"I don't relish calling out his behaviour in a group dynamic. I don't want to hurt my partner, but it was almost like he was consistently forcing me to have to call him out in a group dynamic," she said.

"It was hard because when the group kind of assisted me, Adrian would take accountability. I would have loved for that accountability to have come one on one, behind closed doors. I don't feel like you should apologise in a group environment because you lose a bit of that sincerity."

But despite the rocky portrayal of their relationship on-screen, Awhina claimed that there were certainly good moments between her and Adrian that were not included in the edit.

"We did have really good moments. They've not been shown so far, but I felt like those good moments came at a cost of my needs not being met, and me just kind of sweeping everything under the rug and showing up 85 per cent of the way," she said.

"There are obviously nice sides to Adrian, but they were… quite conditional."

Despite the drama, Awhina and Adrian did have good times too. Image: Nine.

Given the tumultuous nature of their relationship on the show, many were surprised to see Awhina and Adrian spending time together on Valentine's Day, post-MAFS. But Awhina remained very tight-lipped when it came to their ending.

"In the last commitment ceremony, Adrian made some big promises to show up. Maybe he does, and you're just going to have to watch and find out if he turns it all around. But I will say I was in Melbourne recently," she teased.

As far as those dating rumours about Awhina and Billy go… she seems to have shut it down, claiming that the two have nothing more than a "beautiful friendship."

"Billy and I have a really beautiful friendship. We're both from WA, and I guess it's really nice that we can share this experience together, but we are good friends."

So that's that, I guess.

Feature Image: Nine.