On Tuesday, The Wash revealed that Simon Blackburn had been axed as a groom on the upcoming season of Married At First Sight after bosses were made aware of his vile homophobic, sexist, misogynistic videos on social media.
A load more details have since emerged, and we have answers to most of the questions you’ve been asking, so here’s what now know right now…
Who was Simon married to?
According to Daily Mail Australia, Simon said ‘I do’ to Melbourne-based florist Jessica Seracino.
The pair then made it to honeymoon week in late September before Jessica asked her friends to do a bit of research into the man she’d been matched with after noticing ‘red flags’ and becoming ‘extremely uncomfortable’ with him.
After Jessica’s friends then discovered his shocking videos and sent them to her, the newlywed ‘alerted producers’ immediately.
What happened next?
Channel Nine sent The Wash a statement on Tuesday night, explaining Simon was removed from the show as soon as producers were made aware of his videos.
‘When unacceptable social media content was discovered in relation to Simon Blackburn we immediately took steps to remove him from the program. We won’t be making further comment’.
What happened to Jessica?
Surprisingly, Jessica remained on the show.
Daily Mail Australia reported on Wednesday that as the drama unfolded, she stayed in a hotel in Sydney until bosses could find her another groom.
The Wash understands she then joined the cast as an intruder approximately two weeks later, and all the drama with Simon was hush hush.
‘During dinner parties Jessica was told not to talk about Simon or discuss her first marriage at the start of the season,’ our source tells us.
‘It’s as if producers wanted to pretend it never happened. The show must go on, after all.’
Did things work out with her second husband?
That is still tbc, let’s not go too far with the spoilers!
Will Simon be edited out?
As far as we’re aware, Simon and Jess’s wedding will not air on television and all footage of him is as good as erased.
Again, it’s like it never happened.
Why was he in the promo?
This is where it gets a little confusing.
Every September, Channel Nine host their annual ‘Upfronts’ event – where they tease all of their big shows for the coming year to the media.
Usually they include wedding footage from the upcoming season of Married At First Sight, but unfortunately due to Covid and lockdown, none of the weddings had been filmed by the time Nine hosted this year’s virtual event on Sept 16.
To get around this, they cobbled together a series of solo shots of some of the participants that they’d shot during pre-production.
Including one split-second shot of Simon.
If they didn’t include him in this, then there would be no visual evidence of his short stint on the show.
What did he say in the videos?
We don’t really want to type up his disgusting comments, but if you wish to watch a snippet of them – scroll across on the post below.
Please note: it’s very unpleasant viewing.
View this post on Instagram
What has Simon said since our story broke?
He initially commented on our post saying ‘leave the past in the past’ – then he direct messaged us asking if we could delete our post. No, mate.
Following that, he posted a statement to his personal instagram before deleting his profile.
View this post on Instagram
