A revenge plot and an apology: Who is telling the truth about the MAFS cheating scandal?

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It’s one of the greatest mysteries of our generation (it’s not).

Who is telling the truth about their alleged MAFS cheating scandal: Mikey or Stacey?

Natasha’s toast was… everything. Post continues below video.

After weeks of rumours, all the juicy information about the maybe true/maybe not scandal came to light on Tuesday night’s episode of Married At First Sight.

Natasha decided to spill all the drama in the most epic way, by giving a toast. She toasted Stacey and Michael for having the fakest relationship in reality TV history and then acknowledged Stacey for sleeping with her husband on their one month wedding anniversary.

It was A LOT.

The entire room was shocked and for the first time in not only the entire season but reportedly his whole life, Michael was speechless.

The dinner party then transformed into a courtroom drama. We half expected Judge Judy to walk out, but Channel 9 spent all its money on a lie-detector test (more on... that later), and couldn't afford her.

Faced with evidence that showed otherwise, Stacey, a lawyer, denied the whole thing. Isn't perjury... illegal?

Ivan and Aleks confirmed a bag of Mikey's clothes was dropped to their apartment after the pair ~allegedly~ slept together, but Stacey continued to accuse everyone else of lying. Then there was Michael, doing acrobatics in his mind over whether he had a right to be upset at his (fake) wife for cheating after he also… cheated.

Anyway, it is obviously our civil duty to get to bottom on this. So let us present our very important investigation:

What is THE EVIDENCE PLS.

The text messages.

At the dinner party Mikey asked producers for his phone, which contained texts from Stacey he said would prove it.

For reasons that are unclear, Chris is declared the judge, and so is given the task of reading the texts out to the table.

The texts appear to confirm that on the 11th of an undisclosed month, Mikey and Stacey woke up in a room together and something about a rubbish bin.

This seems to be the same text leaked to New Idea in February (which you can see here).

On Wednesday, the Daily Mail published further leaked messages, this time from between Mikey and his (fake) ex-wife Natasha which suggested he and Stacey did sleep together.

"Will talk tomorrow. [It's] not great but neither was our experiment and we had finished by the time it happened, that I promise you," Mikey said to Natasha.

"But I'll call you tomorrow and explain."

In response, Natasha said: "Stacey isn't down to earth babe," in reference to Mikey telling her he wanted a more laid-back partner.

"Sorry if I have hurt you," Mikey responded. "It wasn't anything more than what is was."

The clothes.

At the dinner party, Aleks and Ivan claimed Mikey's clothes had been dropped off at their apartment in a Mecca Cosmetics bag after the alleged incident, but Stacey said they weren't his clothes.

The lie detector.

YOU GUYS, this is a dating show that's entertaining but also not very important in the grand scheme of things (unlike pandemics etc etc) so a lie detector test seems... like overkill? Like just a little bit?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In the footage (watch it here), Mikey is strapped up to a polygraph machine and declares: "I, Michael Pembroke do hereby declare that while at the Sky Suites apartments I had sexual intercourse with Stacey Hampton, signed on the 25/3/2020".

We feel... uncomfortable.

A qualified tester asked him about how truthful that statement was and believed he was telling the truth.

"There was no strong, inconsistent emotional responses indicative of deception to the declaration, so therefore it's my opinion that you're in fact being truthful."

On Wednesday, Stacey said she planned to take a test herself and called out the credibility of Mikey's test.

In response, the media company who filmed the test shared the credentials of the tester, and Mikey said he'd be willing to do another.

An apology.

Leaked video obtained by Woman's Day shows Mikey apologising to Stacey for how he behaved at the reunion dinner party.

He made the apology while on the phone to Stacey's friend Anthony Hess, which was aired during an Instagram Live between Anthony and Stacey.

"Sorry Stacey, I was being a rude d*ckhead," Mikey is heard saying, but he did not apologise for or withdraw his allegation that they slept together.

The group chat.

Mikey has said many times he had wanted to keep the scandal a secret, but speaking on Kyle and Jackie O this week he said there was a group chat that explained why he came clean, and could prove that more cast members knew about the cheating before the reunion dinner party.

Allegedly, Aleks told a number of cast members about the cheating in a group chat and after he was asked about it, he knew he had to be honest.

"Aleks had told the girls in a group chat and so people were coming to me, the girls were coming to me, you can ask anyone of the girls how it actually got out," he said on the radio show.

"There’s one thing not saying something, but it’s another thing lying."

What has Mikey said about the cheating?

Mikey told News.com.au in February, he and Stacey had a "one-night stand" last year.

"I can confirm we did have sex, but it was clearly after Natasha and I had agreed with producers that our relationship was over, and Natasha knew we weren't together," he said.

"I actually didn't want this out as it's not the best way to end my time on the show, but it did happen."

He's maintained it was true since the rumour first emerged.

In an interview uploaded to the MAFS YouTube channel after the reunion dinner party aired, Mikey stuck to his story.

"Look, it wasn't the best decision I've ever made," he said of the night with Stacey.

"I had a few drinks with Ivan and Aleks and Stacey, and one thing led to another. We had a one-night stand. That was it."

During the early weeks of the show, Mikey was embarrassed when it came out at the second dinner party that his (fake) (ex) wife Natasha revealed to Stacey and Michael he'd only lasted 10 seconds in the bedroom.

There have been suggestions Mikey made up the cheating as a form of revenge, as Michael shared the information with the entire cast.

"Michael's a bit of a smart arse," Mikey said in the YouTube video.

"He didn't mind going around calling me '10 Second Mike'. I'm pretty sure this was a bit longer than 10 seconds," he laughed. "Now looking back on it, it's a bit of a laugh, but it's not like a 'nah, nah'. I didn't mean for it to be revenge, no."

On Instagram, Mikey said he'd be willing to do another lie detector test - the same as Stacey said she'd do - to once again prove the truth.

And what about Stacey?

Stacey said "BULLSH*T," and "I DON'T CARE" at the dinner party, but she's also denied the alleged cheating in interviews.

"Nothing happened between Mikey and I. No sexual relations. Nothing. I can guarantee that," she told Woman's Day.

She again denied it in a video for Yahoo Lifestyle, suggesting the reason Mikey continues to bring up the rumours is because he's upset she rejected him.

"I actually do think it stemmed from him wanting to stay with me in the experiment when we both wrote 'leave' that same week, I think maybe it was rejection."

After the episode aired on Tuesday night, Stacey shared messages from supporters on her Instagram story and made a few references to what she maintained were lies, including calling Ivan out as a noncredible witness.

On Wednesday, Stacey said she had proof the lie detector was fake.

"I am done talking about this MAFS lie detector saga nonsense. I am going to receive a lot of apologies when you receive this video that you are going to watch next. I am putting it to rest and I am done now," she said.

She then uploaded video of a phone call she had with an allegedly trained polygraph operator she found online, who suggested Mikey's test was inaccurate.

She then said she was planning to take a test herself.

What does Michael think?

On Wednesday morning, Michael called in to Nova 96.9's Fitzy and Wippa and said he believed Mikey's version of events.

"Look when you’ve been confronted with a story like that, the first thing you've gotta do is make sure your story is in line. If there’s any gaps or holes, you’re a liar so you see me quite clearly say 'is there any text messages?'," he explained.

"I can have your back here regardless of what’s happened, I can have your back to the bitter end but what I can’t do is have your back if you’re lying to me. [Stacey said] 'No no no, there’s no text messages', then the phone comes out full of text messages. I can help you in a sinking canoe but I can't just keep shovelling buckets of water out for you, I'm sorry you've gone down on this one."

He said "of course" Mikey and Stacey slept together, pointing out the lie detector test as proof.

"They flew up some top ex-Military person, strapped [Mikey] up it went for about four hours and got a fully conclusive result."

How about everyone else?

Natasha told Mamamia there was a time she thought she and Mikey could have a real relationship, but seeing texts between him and Stacey changed that.

"Now that I’ve read the messages where [Mikey’s] trying to get Stacey to come to an agreement to do a partner swap, I just don’t know how much of [our relationship] was authentic," she said.

"There were times that I did believe that [a relationship] could be possible between us but now I think it was more that Mikey was really pushing to stay in the show."

The leaked text messages also seemed to insinuate that Mikey and Stacey were having an affair off-screen, but now Natasha isn't so sure about what happened.

"At the end of the day, they are the only two people who know the truth," Natasha said.

"I went into the reunion dinner party believing that Mikey was being sincere in his admissions that he had slept with Stacey. Because in my eyes, I never believed that anyone would lie about cheating.

"But now in hindsight, now that I’ve read those text messages where Mikey was really pushing for the partner swapping storyline, I think that there is a potential that [the affair] might be made up.

"Both sides are plausible but it’s hard. It’s a horrible rumour and right now, I’m up in arms about what happened."

Ivan told Talking Married, he and Aleks were privileged to a lot of the information before it came out at the dinner party.

"I was caught up in it because I was around when they were in mine and Aleks' apartment. I was around the next morning with Mikey left her apartment at 3/4am, so I wasn't going to let my best buddy sink for something that I actually know, he didn't want it to come out."

On Instagram, Stacey shared a friend's Instagram story that questioned Ivan's story, asking if it meant Mikey left Stacey's apartment naked and how Ivan saw him leave at that time of night.

In conclusion, our investigation has found... MAFS and its drama is highly confusing. Nothing new then, we guess.

Feature images: Channel 9.