The four most casually cruel words ever uttered on MAFS.

I really wanted to enjoy the first episode of Married at First Sight, aka the reality TV phenomenon and the most fun I have watching TV all year.

I had my snacks at the ready, my phone set on 'do not disturb' and switched on MAFS for the ultimate two hours of trash TV.

But within the first few minutes, I instantly felt compelled to turn it off. As it always does, the problems started at the notorious bucks night.

It started off wholesome enough between the grooms: a lot of furious handshaking, complimenting each other's 'handsomeness' and the way they smelled ("he smells so good!" one man exclaimed enthusiastically). Just normal boy stuff!

Watch the teaser for MAFS 2026. Post continues after video.

Then regrettably, Chris entered the room.

Within a few seconds of his introduction package, it became crystal clear that Chris is the designated villain of this season.

Make no mistake, the 31-year-old construction advisor from Melbourne was cast on this show to be the guy you want to scream at.

"People either love me or hate me!" Chris said in his audition. I'd hazard a guess that those ratios are far from 50/50.

Chris' comments then took a more sinister tone, as he repeatedly made fatphobic comments. When listing his 'turn-offs', he said "fake tan, needy and fat people."

Back at the bucks, he told the table of men that he plans on judging his bride on her appearance first and foremost. "Looks are massive for me — it's not all about the personality, surely," he says.

When asked about his dealbreakers when dating, he said a woman who is 'overweight'. And he kept going. "If I have a genuine interest in someone, they are going to be fit and healthy," he continued, after he proudly clarified that he doesn't actively abuse fat people on the street.

Congratulations??? Image: Nine.

As if this man could say anything worse than the disgusting drivel that had spewed out of his mouth for the past minute, he then said something under his breath, delivered with a sinister smile.

"Fat people, no go," this man actually said on national TV.

These are four of the most casually cruel words I've ever heard said on this show that I've spent a decade of my life writing about.

These fleeting words might have gone under the radar in the episode, but I couldn't stop thinking about them.

Firstly, the way that Chris is confident enough to classify an entire group of people as a 'no go' for him is completely presumptuous and self-entitled.

Hey Chris, do these people want a 'go' with you? I'd hazard a guess that's a hard no f**king way.

But the even bigger issue is that these words have flattened an entire group of people — a wide spectrum of people from different backgrounds — and painted them with the same brush stroke. This is not just ignorant, but it's a large part of how fat people are dehumanised and marginalised by certain subsections — especially straight men.

To say a group of people is a 'no go' for him isn't a tone-deaf throwaway line — it's a dangerous form of discrimination because he's comfortable enough to air it loud and proud.

A 2021 study by the Australian National University found that 56 per cent of Australians had experienced stigma around their weight and a further 31 percent had experienced weight-based discrimination.

In another 2021 study commissioned as part of the SBS doco, What Do Australians Really Think About… Obesity, they found that 42 per cent of obese people have experienced harassment because of their weight.

And to see how much prejudice fat people can face daily, look no further than the cast of MAFS, which is known for casting almost exclusively thin brides and grooms each and every season.

For the ones who don't fit into these specific shape and size requirements, their weight often becomes a talking point of their story arc, such as Katie Johnson in last year's season being matched with a man wanting a 'petite' bride.

On the 2023 season, groom Dan Hunjas made comments about wanting his bride, Sandy Jawanda, to go to the gym more.

And who can forget Lizzie Sobinoff's story arc on the 2019 season, when her groom Sam Ball, cruelly said that he wanted to 'get her running' in an attempt to make her smaller?

This series has a complicated history with the size of its contestants.

Chris' cavalier use of the words 'fat' and 'overweight' interchangeably also shows he has no idea what he's actually talking about.

And look, no one actually asked him questions to elicit these responses either. But I was saddened that in the room of ten men, no one spoke up to condemn Chris' disgraceful words.

A lot of side-eyes but not a lot of speaking up. Image: Nine.

He got a few wide-eyed responses and a squawking noise from Steven, but not much else. "Chris…. he was stirring the pot," Danny said in a confessional. Geez, that's an understatement.

"He is very blatant and blunt," Grayson also said in a separate piece to camera. "If that's the way he speaks about women, he's got no chance."

MAFS viewers have seen this play out almost every season. The show casts a villain groom who says outrageous things at the bucks' party — at the table, the other men say nothing (well, at least in the episode's edit), but away from said villain groom, they always have A LOT to say about him.

It was the same story for Eliot last season, who told his fellow grooms upon meeting them that he would dump his bride if she wasn't 'his type' before encouraging the fellas to insult their partners. "Tell her she looks awful, trust me," he actually said in a line straight out of the manosphere.

These MAFS men have long been allowed to share offensive, misogynistic and fat-shaming sentiments — all said unchecked — and in most cases, they won't be held accountable until there are more women in the room.

It's an exhausting pattern that I hoped we had evolved past by 2026. But when it comes to MAFS men, if this is what they're saying on a national TV show watched by the masses, I'd hate to imagine what they say behind closed doors.

Feature image: Nine.