THEY never seemed to click on the new series of Married At First Sight UK – but away from the cameras, it appears their romance was even frostier.
Guitarist Richie Dews, 51, seemed blindsided when his MAFS wife Lara Eyre, 50, said he was “a great guy” but wasn’t the one for her.
MAFS UK star Lara Eyre says she doesn’t believe Richie was honest when applying for the show
She claims the guitarist acted up to the cameras and was quiet when they stopped filming
It cam after the waitress admitting the former bachelor, who lived a “sex, drugs and rock n roll” lifestyle for years playing in bands, was “more of a project” than she anticipated.
MAFS UK fans were left cringing when their awkward relationship crumbled on screen and it sometimes seemed that Lara was not being upfront about her problems.
However, in an exclusive interview with The Celeb Report, the mum-of-two claims that behind the scenes Richie “threw me under the bus”, showed barely any romantic interest and only seemed concerned about getting famous.
Lara said: “The TV edits made it look like I never told Richie about my concerns and I should have spoken out before, but I did it many times.
“It looked like he had all the love and I couldn’t be bothered to teach him how to be in a relationship but that wasn’t true.
“It felt like I was dating a TV presenter because Richie was always acting whenever they were filming and concerned with how people would perceive him.
“When the cameras were off, Richie kept to himself and wasn’t as enthusiastic or caring, he didn’t ask much about me except for when they were filming.
“How can you make a relationship work if someone’s performing? I was there for realness and he wanted to come off looking fantastic.
“I wish there were cameras everywhere filming all the time because Richie was very good at making sure his mask didn’t slip.
“If the show was more like Love Island, viewers would have been able to get a more honest view and things wouldn’t have been hidden.”
‘Richie wasn’t honest with producers’
After applying to be on the show, MAFS “super fan” Lara says she went through “six or seven months” of “rigorous” questioning to find her perfect man.
At first Lara thought she and Richie were a “good match” as they both loved music and were “young at heart” – but soon things began to unravel.
She said: “At a first glance, Richie seemed like a good fit but you have to be 100 per cent honest with the team and I don’t know how honest he was about what he wanted with producers.
“I think that’s where we ran into trouble. He wanted to please producers and told them what they wanted to hear to get onto the show.”
Lara admits she regrets not getting more of a chance to bond with fellow cast members, which she claims was due to Richie not wanting to attend off-camera parties.
She said: “People got to know each other away from filming but I didn’t get to do that because Richie wasn’t into it so we had to keep away.
“It was a shame we didn’t get to hang out more because I missed out on a lot of friendships, parties in people’s rooms and secret chats.”
‘He was being a jerk’
Lara claims the edits made it look like she blindsided Richie when she expressed her concerns
Lara and Richie turned up separately for their final dinner party, which she explains wasn’t her decision.
“He had moved out by that point and we hadn’t spoken, so producers kept us separate and took us in different cars so that we didn’t talk about what happened off-camera,” she said.
“Richie always told me, ‘Please don’t say bad things about me’ and was clear that he wanted to maintain how great we were.
“So it was a bit of a shock when I arrived at the dinner party and he had thrown me under the bus. I was quite upset when I watched that back and no one told me what Richie had said.
“I felt like he got in there first and got to push his narrative, which made it seem like I was a lunatic and had lost my mind but he was being a jerk.
“It was like living in a fantasy relationship where he said one thing to me and different things to everyone else.”
Cutting jibe was ‘edited’
Lara explained that filming for the commitment ceremonies took a long time – often with them arriving at 9.30am and not leaving until midnight.
Watching them back now, she finds it “really annoying” because each couple’s hour on the couch was cut down and cleverly edited.
Lara said: “They can’t make you say something you don’t want to but they can cut out massive chunks from the start of a sentence and edit out the important bits.
“In our commitment ceremony, it looked like I was telling Richie he was too much for me for the first time but in reality, I said it a lot.
“In the clip where he says, ‘This is the first I’ve heard of it’ – that was in response to me apologising to him for something else.”
‘Should have been more honest’
Lara, a former dancer and model, regrets trying to be ‘respectful’
Lara wishes she was “more honest” about what really happened when the cameras weren’t rolling.
She said: “I’m a little sad about it. If I was with someone who was more real maybe we would have had a chance.
“He kept saying, ‘Everything is great, she’s great,’ and thanking me for his Eat Pray Love journey, which stopped me from saying what I felt.
“I wanted to be respectful and didn’t repeat a lot of things he said that didn’t sit well with me because I didn’t want to embarrass him.
“Maybe I should have been more honest and said, ‘This is not what happens when we’re back at the apartment’ but I was trying to be respectful because he was my husband.”
‘We’re not in touch, he blocked me’
Couples aren’t allowed to use their personal phones on the show and instead are given a new one by the production team.
Lara says she found it odd that – unlike other couples – Richie didn’t take her number.
Since their time on the show came to an end, the couple haven’t remained in touch.
Lara said: “He didn’t ask for my number when we left either, I thought it was maybe because he was more of the injured party.
“I thought if he wanted to get in touch he would have but then he blocked me on social media and I don’t follow him.”
‘Richie nearly blew show secret’
Lara and Richie on their honeymoon in Germany
Lara claims being blocked by Richie risked ruining the surprise about what happened to them on the show.
“When the experiment ends you are supposed to pretend you’re still dating and post like a couple would to keep the storyline going,” she said.
“People always go through Instagram looking for clues and at first, Richie was tagging everyone but me in posts, which made it obvious we weren’t still together.”
While she didn’t find the man of her dreams on the show, she “loved every minute” and doesn’t regret anything.
Lara said: “It was a great experience and I was very lucky to have been chosen.
“I’m a Married At First Sight superfan and although there was a lot of sitting around and long filming days, I loved it.
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“It was great, I’m a mum of two and so not having my children or responsibilities to just focus on me was amazing.”
The Celeb Report approached Richie Dews for comment but he did not want to comment on the claims made by Lara.
Richie Dews previously appeared on the dating show Take Me Out
