Amy Kenyon, who appeared on Married At First Sight UK in 2024, has claimed that she required therapy following her alleged experience of sexual harassment during filming of the Channel 4 programme.
The 29-year-old, who has since featured on Celebrity Ex on the Beach, described feeling deeply uncomfortable with her on-screen partner Luke Debono throughout the majority of their time together.
"Sexual harassment went on, and mine happened on camera. I just had to deal with it, and everybody was just laughing at it. It was making good TV, even if I did feel uncomfortable 80 per cent of the time," she claimed to The Sun.
Ms Kenyon characterised her participation in the social experiment as "very, very, very difficult," recalling how she informed producers that Debono resembled "a creepy guy [she] would avoid at the bar."
The former sales worker claimed Mr Debono's problematic conduct began immediately, with her asking him to moderate his behaviour during their honeymoon in the Bahamas.
Rather than complying, his sexually explicit remarks and derogatory jokes supposedly intensified as he noticed others finding them amusing, she alleges.
"I'm not that sensitive, but it was the fact that I was asking him to stop, and he wouldn't," Ms Kenyon explained.
His alleged behaviour included discussing intimate details of their relationship in front of fellow contestants and the show's experts, removing his shirt during a pottery activity, and making crude comments such as telling her he "wished the stool he was sitting on were her face."
Amy Kenyon said he felt humiliated on the show
|Despite Ms Kenyon allegedly pleading with Mr Debono not to humiliate her by revealing private details on camera, a conversation between him and another groom about their bedroom activities was broadcast.
She recalled asking: "Please don't humiliate me," as she hoped her dad would be able to watch her stint on the show.
Ms Kenyon's account emerges in the wake of a BBC Panorama investigation that broadcast allegations from two women claiming they were raped by their on-screen husbands during filming, with a third alleging a non-consensual sex act.
Channel 4 executive Priya Dogra expressed being "deeply sorry" after viewing the documentary and learning of the women's distress, though noted the broadcaster cannot investigate the specific allegations, which the men have denied.
All episodes of MAFS UK have subsequently been removed from streaming platforms, although no final decision regarding the programme's future has been announced.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Amy Kenyon has criticised MAFS for Luke Debono's behaviour
|E4
Mr Debono himself was prohibited from attending the reunion show after reportedly shocking both cast and crew with aggressive behaviour, according to the Daily Mail.
Ms Kenyon has since described him as "the most vile human being [she's] ever met."
Ms Kenyon, who ended her relationship with Mr Debono at the final vow ceremony, believes she had a "lucky escape" from the Maltese ex-prison education manager.
While praising Channel 4 for conducting "thorough" background checks on participants, she is now advocating for round-the-clock monitoring in the MAFS apartments should the programme return.
Amy Kenyon has spoken out about her MAFS experience
|"They can vet the people, but you don't truly know who somebody is. So there is the risk," she said.
Mr Debono, who recently turned 33 and maintains an Instagram following of 102,000, was blocked by Ms Kenyon immediately after filming concluded.
In a previous statement addressing viewer criticism during the series broadcast, he wrote: "Please bear in mind that [you] only see a snippet of our time together, and we are sometimes caught in vulnerable or heightened moments."
GB News has contacted Channel 4 and CPL for comment previously.