MARRIED At First Sight UK has filmed its upcoming Christmas reunion special – and two memorable brides were snubbed.
The special will reunite the most talked-about stars from the last two series of the E4 show, but there were a couple of surprising absences because bosses didn’t ask Whitney Hughes and April Banbury to take part.
An insider told The Sun: “Many of the cast were surprised to learn that Whitney and April hadn’t been asked to film the Christmas special – they expected them to be there.
“Not every participant from the 2021 and 2022 series was asked, but considering what key characters both of them were during the most recent run, there was lots of chatter on set about them not being involved.”
Another show source confirmed that Whitney and April were not present during the seasonal shoot, and said casting would be confirmed in the coming weeks.
It comes as The Sun revealed yesterday that two grooms had also been axed from the festive special.
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George Roberts and Matt Murray, both of whom starred in the recent regular series reunion, aren’t playing a part in the Christmas show either.
George was paired with April during the series, while Matt had an affair with Whitney after originally entering as an intruder with Gemma.
Whitney and Matt continued in the process as a newly-formed couple, but the pair revealed at the end-of-series reunion that they had gone their separate ways.
April, meanwhile, was matched with George on the show but while the show was airing, it came to light that he had been arrested after three of his ex girlfriends accused him of emotional abuse and coercive control.
The pair appeared on the reunion together, which was filmed prior to George’s alleged past coming to light, but April confirmed on spin-off show Unveiled this week that they were no longer an item.
An insider added: “While George and Matt were not asked to take part in the Christmas special, the cast still expected Whitney and April to be present, despite their involvement with these men on the show.”
The Sun was the first to reveal that a Christmas reunion was in the works.
We broke the story back in September that bosses were hoping to replicate the success of Love Island’s 2018 Christmas special by bringing the stars from the show to live in a festively-decorated country house for a reunion.
A TV insider said: “Bosses are over the moon with the success of this series so far and thought a Christmas spin-off would be the perfect way to capitalise on that.
