When ads for Married at First Sight showed groom James Susler confessing to his bride Jo Todd that he had fallen for another woman in the experiment, we were all on the edge of our seats wondering who on earth it could be — especially given the fact that we hadn’t seen him interact with anyone other than his wife.
At Sunday night’s commitment ceremony, James finally revealed the object of his affection to be MAFSsexologist Alessandra Rampolla, with his fellow participants looking on in shock as he delivered the news along with a kiss on the cheek for the confused expert.
James quickly had an about face as he then explained it was all a joke, leaving everyone scratching their heads wondering what, exactly, was funny about the whole thing.
“I’m trying to lighten the mood. I was only joking,” James explained, but the Twitterverse was not having it and quickly began lambasting the car company owner’s lack of sensitivity.
“James needs to get sacked off this show after that joke,” one user wrote, while another said, “OMG! James! What a Jerk!”
Another viewer took to Twitter to write,”Not only disrespectful of his fake wife, but also violated the space of a woman doing her job.”
For her part, Alessandra was completely bewildered, telling James that she did not get the joke, nor did she find it funny.
“I think it’s incredibly disrespectful to Jo, who’s sitting next to you,” she said.
As for Jo, she was mortified by the whole thing, especially in light of the fact that she had voted to stay in the experiment while James opted to leave. The couple will now have to try for another week to make their relationship work, so here’s hoping James’s taste in jokes can rise to the same level as his taste in fancy watches.
In conclusion, we think Mel Schilling’s face really just said it all.
