Fans were shocked to see Bristol-based Married at First Sight star Emma Barnes was not present during the reunion episode that aired last night. But now Barnes has shared that she was uninvited from the show, saying “they didn’t need me”.
Last night’s episode saw members of the season eight and nine cast reunite over a fiery dinner discussing their splits, love lives and feuds. But viewers were quick to notice a certain someone was missing from the special episode, which aired on E4.
Speaking to Yahoo! before the episode aired, Barnes shared: “They didn’t need me anymore. I still don’t know why I was cut. There were some storylines that they wanted to follow, the producers, and yeah, someone must have taken my seat, right, so someone got called up to get back on there. But yeah, not me!”
Barnes added that her friends were very upset when they found out she would not be making an appearance.
“There was certainly an uproar from a lot of my friends that I wasn’t gonna be there — I don’t know whether that’s just my friends though! I know I’m a big personality and I definitely could have brought some laughs to the table… It’s a shame.”
During her time on the show, Barnes was married to Caspar Todd, who was also not invited back to the reunion. The couple’s marriage started on the wrong foot, despite Emma being delighted with her match. Unfortunately, the feelings weren’t reciprocated, with Todd saying he wasn’t physically attracted to Barnes and that she was similar to his sister.
The couple eventually chose to end the experiment as they continued to struggle throughout their relationship and time on the show. But Barnes has no hard feelings towards her ex-husband, who has since found love after the show.
“Caspar was like, ‘I want to meet the love of my life’, and he’s found that even after [the show finished filming]. He probably didn’t get the best public perception at times as well. I’m super happy for him. He seems really, really happy. I think she’s moved in, so yeah, he’s happy, good on him and I think a couple of the other boys as well have found love.”
She also shared that she was excited to return to the show for the episode: “I think a reunion is just a great time to go and see everyone and I bought my outfit, I was looking fire.
“You didn’t really know who was going, you didn’t know whether Caspar was gonna be there, and it was the day before, I was ready to go up to London the day before and then go straight down to the reunion and it was a real shame.”
But whilst Barnes didn’t appear on the show, many of her friends did, with her season nine cast mates including Adam Nightingale, Amy Kenyon, Hannah Norburn, Holly Ditchfield, Kieran Chapman, Kristina Goodsell, Lacey Martin, Nathan Campbell, Orson Nurse, Sionnain Carmichael and Sacha Jones, returning.
They were also joined by cast members from season eight including Ella Morgan, Erica Roberts, Matt Pilmoor, Shona Maderson, Paul Liba and Tasha Jay.
Barnes shared that despite not being at the reunion, she knew a lot of the drama that went down, thanks to a MAFS UK WhatsApp group. “I knew that there were lots of bits of drama bubbling around from the WhatsApp group,” she said.
“Me as I guess ‘Auntie Emma’, I’m there for the girls, I’m often the first person people call up and be like, ‘Barnes help me with this!’ I tend to look after everyone but also I love the drama, stirring the pot… I think me being there, especially with the mix of the old cast and the new cast, I’d have just been on fire.”