I’ve seen plenty of Dinner Party blow-ups during my years reporting on MAFS.
And one thing I’ve realised is that there is a significant difference between losing your temper in the heat of the moment and plotting a character assassination before you even walk through the warehouse doors.
Over the past week, shocked viewers have been debating whether the ‘mean girl’ behaviour directed at Alissa Fay at Dinner Party #2 – now widely considered the worst in the show’s history – was alcohol-fuelled chaos or the result of crafty editing.
But now, newly leaked group chat messages – which Channel Nine and production company EndemolShine never wanted to see the light of day – strongly suggest something far more calculated was going on.
Screenshots from a private WhatsApp chat between several brides – including Bec Zacharia, Gia Fleur and Brook Crompton – show a damning conversation that took place days before Dinner Party #2 was filmed.
The exchange all but confirms that the explosive confrontation was planned ahead of time.
Screenshots from a WhatsApp chat between several brides, including Bec Zacharia (right) and Gia Fleur (left), show a damning conversation that took place before Dinner Party #2
Viewers have been debating whether the ‘mean girl’ behaviour directed at Alissa Fay – now considered the worst in MAFS history – was alcohol-fuelled chaos or something more sinister
The leaked texts raise an unavoidable question: was that confrontation at Dinner Party #2 a spontaneous blow-up – or the first step in a calculated plan? Alissa believes it was the latter
In one message, Bec declares she is going to ‘go so f**king hard on Alissa and her fake relationship.’ Another bride responds: ‘Go babe we agree and got you.’
In another, Bec refers to Alissa as a ‘rat’ for telling MAFS producers that a reporter had contacted her, before making deeply offensive remarks about her character.
Elsewhere in the conversation, insults fly about Alissa being allegedly fake, unrelatable and opportunistic.
Later, one of the group members dismissively refers to a MAFS couple as ‘Christian influencer wannabes’ and another says it’s ‘obvious’ they are ‘dying to be’ famous – understood to be in reference to Alissa and husband David Momoh.
The timing of these messages is important.
While they predate Dinner Party #2 and suggest a campaign against Alissa, she would not learn of the texts until weeks later – a discovery that will feature on the show.
For Alissa, the reveal makes her reconsider the weeks of relentless insults and accusations of faking her relationship that she endured at successive Dinner Parties.
It also raises the unavoidable question: was that confrontation at Dinner Party #2 a spontaneous blow-up – or the first step in a calculated plan?
The exchange all but confirms that the explosive confrontation between the ‘mean girl’ brides and Alissa (above, with husband David Momoh) was planned ahead of time
Bec declares just over a week before Dinner Party #2 that she’s going to ‘go so f**king hard on Alissa and her fake relationship’
Pictured: A snapshot of the vicious WhatsApp group chat, in which Alissa is labelled a ‘rat’ and Daily Mail reporter Ali Daher gets a mention
Later on, the group‑chat mean girls brand two rivals ‘Christian influencer wannabes’ who are ‘dying to be’ famous’ – understood to be a reference to Alissa and her husband David
Alissa believes it was the latter.
‘There was a lot of mean girl behaviour. And a lot of stuff didn’t make the cut because it was just too vicious to air on TV,’ Alissa told me.
She describes sitting at the dinner table feeling ‘attacked and ganged up on’, but says the most confronting part was later discovering the group chat messages.
‘To find out that it was premeditated as well, it’s pretty disgusting.’
She insists, to her knowledge, there was never a genuine catalyst for the hostility, instead believing jealousy drove the other brides to turn on her in such a vicious way.
Alissa is now understood to have engaged lawyers and is considering her options.
Alissa (right) believes that she and Stella Mickunaite (left) were targeted for being confident, strong women who ‘were doing well in our relationships’
In particular, Alissa says, she was blindsided by Gia’s aggression. ‘She even said at the dinner party, “I hate Alissa.” She has no reason to hate me. I didn’t even know her’
‘Stella [Mickunaite] and I are confident, strong women. We know who we are. We show up as who we are… and I think because we were doing well in our relationships – and we are doing well – that was a threat,’ she said.
In particular, Alissa says, she was blindsided by Gia’s aggression.
‘She even said at the dinner party, “I hate Alissa.” She has no reason to hate me. I didn’t even know her,’ she said.
‘We never really built a relationship up to that point. It was malicious.’
Alissa maintains she never verbally attacked any of the other brides, saying she was focusing on her relationship with her husband.
Alissa maintains she never verbally attacked any of the other brides before they turned on her
Bec (above, with on-screen husband Danny) has apologised for her treatment of Alissa
She also revealed that Bec, whom she at one stage considered a friend on the show, has since apologised to her.
Bec, for her part, has not denied her behaviour.
In fact, she has done something rare in the MAFS ecosystem: she has refused to blame the edit.
‘This is not an edit,’ she told me.
‘What happened was what happened. I did yell at Alissa. I didn’t stand up for Stella when Brook was being vile. I have to take accountability.
She described watching the footage from Dinner Party #2 as ‘confronting’.
‘I’m disappointed in myself. The way I acted – it was not okay,’ she said.
‘I should have been a big girl and said, “This stinks. Stop doing it.” So I’m just as guilty as the rest of them.’
While Bec may have apologised and expressed regret about her treatment of Alissa, that does not erase what the group chat reveals: a coordinated, planned attack on one bride who, as far as I can tell, had not done anything wrong.
Alissa says the divide at the dinner table was obvious.
‘You had the five-headed dragon across the table – the five mean girls. And then you had Stella and Filip and David and I,’ she said.
‘That’s what you’re meant to be doing. Building a relationship. Not playing high school games. The truth always comes out. And their true colours are shining.’
The leaked group chat shines an entirely different light on what will go down in history as the worst MAFS Dinner Party.
Booze-fuelled blow-ups are nothing new on this show – but calculated plans to go ‘hard’ on a bride labelled a ‘rat’ are a different kind of low.
The truth, as Alissa says, always comes out.