As Luke Fourniotis prepares to walk down the aisle and meet his bride, sight unseen; he does so without his late father by his side. But he has a strong sense of what his dad would have thought about his Married at First Sight journey.
“Dad was typically a conservative person,” the 30-year-old tells TV WEEK. “But, at the same time, I think he would have backed my decision to go on the show. He always had the mindset that life’s short, make the most of it. So, if he knew I was happy and I wanted to do it, he would have been all for it.”
Following his father’s passing, the Victorian-based farmer also went through the breakdown of his only long-term relationship – a double blow that left him in what he describes as a “pretty low place”.
“Those two losses formed a big void,” he says. “I never fully dealt with my dad passing away; I’d never really dealt with anything remotely close to it before. Then, losing that relationship triggered emotions about Dad passing. It was quite a traumatic time.”
Now, as Luke steps up to Australia’s most controversial couples experiment, he admits unanticipated challenges emerged.
“I wouldn’t say that the fear of loss impacted my time in the experiment, but I would say that there were new struggles that came up that made it not so good.”
Luke spoke to TV WEEK while battling an illness he believes was triggered by the stress of the series finally airing, with MAFS premiering this week on the Nine Network.
“I’ve actually been a bit under the weather,” Luke admits. “I think it’s part of just the stress of it all coming out. It was a tough time, so part of me doesn’t want to relive that, but there’s no escaping the feeling.”
Does that mean Luke comes to blows with his new bride? Or is he simply referring to the emotional toll of being thrown into a completely new experience far from home?
Despite the challenges, Luke insists he gave the experience everything – and says the friendships he formed along the way became a vital lifeline.
“It was helpful being able to lean on a few people and get some advice,” he explains.
“It was nice having genuine friendships in there. If you don’t have that, you can almost start to lose the plot.”