Married At First Sight’s Melissa Akbay reveals ‘vile’ trolling left her ‘too scared to go outside’ and led to crippling insecurity about her EARS – following split from Luke Fourniotis

Married At First Sight bride Mel Akbay has broken her silence after being engulfed by a wave of online hate that she claims left her fearful of leaving her home.

The 2026 bride became one of the most talked-about stars of the season after her awkward marriage to Luke Fourniotis unravelled in front of millions.

The 28-year-old sat down for a raw, no-holds-barred interview with Daily Mail in which she admitted watching herself back was ‘tough’ and ‘traumatising’.

‘I feel like I can breathe again after this intense journey,’ Mel began, before confessing she was blindsided by how she came across on screen.

‘Watching it back, I was like, I was the most naïve person in the world,’ she said.

‘I still take full accountability for the way I acted… but the problem was they took the worst moments of me and they made that my storyline.’

As the show aired, the backlash spiralled so quickly she says she stopped leaving her house.

‘For the last, like, three weeks since the show has aired, I have been genuinely too scared to go outside,’ she said.

‘People think they know Mel from MAFS. Mel from MAFS isn’t a real person. I am a real person.’

Mel revealed she applied on a whim, believing the glossy promise that the experts would genuinely match her with her person.

‘I just wanted to take a leap. I was like, you know, I’m single. Why not try?’ she explained.

‘When you go through the process… you really believe, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to fall in love.’

But that optimism evaporated the moment she walked down the aisle and realised Luke wasn’t standing at the end of it.

‘As soon as I walked down and I didn’t see Luke standing there, I just felt like, I was going to be the joke of the show,’ she said.

‘My family’s here. My best friends are here. What are they going to think?’

Luke eventually arrived late, dancing his way in, and Mel admitted she felt ‘hurt’ and ’embarrassed’ more than furious.

‘I wasn’t angry, angry, but I was upset,’ she said.

‘I was humiliated.’

Despite the rocky start, Mel insisted she did try to make an effort with Luke, even revealing a small detail viewers never saw coming: she once gifted him gum because he chews it constantly.

‘Luke loves chewing gum… I got him a three pack of his favourite gum. ‘Cause that guy chews gum like no tomorrow,’ she laughed.

But when it came to chemistry, Mel says she couldn’t force what wasn’t there.

‘To be honest, when I saw Luke walking towards me, it was kind of like, I just didn’t feel anything,’ she admitted.

‘He’s not my usual type, no, but I don’t think he’s unattractive… I know Luke is attractive, but was I attracted to him? No.’

She also didn’t shy away from a truth that has followed her all season. 

‘I never wanted to lead him on,’ she said.

‘I wasn’t into him… can you imagine kissing someone that you don’t have feelings for?’

Mel claimed her earliest weeks were fuelled by panic and a feeling she couldn’t escape.

‘I genuinely didn’t want to be there. Like I wanted to leave and I felt like I couldn’t,’ she said.

‘When you’re in an environment where you feel so trapped and you can’t escape, it makes you depressed. It makes you mentally unstable.’

She said Luke convinced her to give it another week after the first commitment ceremony, and for a brief moment, they found a rhythm.

‘We had a good week. Like we went out to dinner, we watched movies together, we went for walks,’ she said.

But she soon realised the connection was friendship, not romance, and she couldn’t continue.

‘I’m not there to be Luke’s friend,’ she said. ‘And I just couldn’t lie to myself and be like, “Okay, just pretend to like him”.’

The stalking controversy – and the ‘horror soundtrack’ edit

Mel also addressed the controversy around an anecdote from her audition tape, which resurfaced during the season and triggered a pile-on.

‘I don’t think stalking is funny and I don’t condone it,’ she said, stressing she regrets how she told the story.

She insisted the incident happened when she was 17 and driving around with friends, and she was horrified by how it was presented on-screen.

‘They put this like intense horror movie soundtrack behind me, making me look like the guy from You,’ she said.

‘And I’m sorry if I triggered anyone… because I don’t think stalking is funny. 

‘I deleted my TikTok. I deleted my Facebook – the hate that crossed the line.’ 

As the memes and commentary spread, Mel said she made the decision to step away from social media entirely.

‘I had to take a step off social media. I had to,’ she said.

‘I deleted my TikTok, I deleted my Facebook’

She claimed strangers were DMing her, and the abuse didn’t stop with her.

‘Not only was I getting trolled, my friends and my family were getting trolled,’ she said.

‘It was so hectic.’

One moment in particular still stings, she revealed, recalling a clip from a podcaster who repeatedly called her a ‘c***’ and mocked her based on brief scenes from the show.

‘That was hard for me,’ she said.

She also detailed the cruelty of viewers zeroing in on her insecurities, including her blinking and her ears.

‘I never realised how much I blink… and then I go online… hating on the fact that I’m blinking so much,’ she said.

‘It’s because I’m anxious.’

‘And then, everyone’s going on and on and on about my ears… even when I go to yoga now, I do my hair like this so no one can see my ears.’

Mel revealed she’d previously considered cosmetic surgery, but couldn’t justify the price.

‘I was going to get my ears pinned back, but it’s like seven to $8,000,’ she said.

The ‘hypocrisy’ claim – ‘I got more hate than people who smashed wine glasses’

In one of her strongest claims, Mel suggested the level of vitriol aimed at her has been wildly disproportionate.

‘In the 13 seasons of MAFS… there have been people who’ve held abuse… smashed wine glasses… thrown wine… shared explicit images,’ she said.

‘And out of all of that, I truly believe I got more hate than any of those instances, all because I didn’t like a boy.’

She also pointed to the ‘irony’ of being branded ‘evil’ by people leaving cruel comments.

‘I think the irony isn’t lost on me when people are commenting that I’m evil while writing the most malicious and cruel comments about me,’ she said.

The experts, the couch – and ‘I was traumatised’

Mel described her first commitment ceremony as a breaking point, claiming what viewers saw barely scratched the surface.

‘In real life it was 10 times worse,’ she said.

‘I was traumatised by that couch session.’

She also accused the experts of being ‘really hard on the women’ and questioned the double standard in how conflict is handled.

‘I truly believe that… the attack is always skewed to the women,’ she said.

The pink backlash – and why she stopped wearing her favourite colour

In another gut-punch confession, Mel revealed she stopped wearing pink after being mocked online for her ‘princess’ persona.

‘One of my coping mechanisms… I don’t wear pink anymore,’ she said.

‘I just got so much hate for it… I can’t say anything ’cause I can’t win.’

No bad blood with Luke – ‘If I saw him today, I’d give him a hug’

Despite everything, Mel insisted she doesn’t hate Luke and claims she never intended to paint him as a villain.

‘I don’t think Luke is a bad person,’ she said.

‘In my vox that never was shown… I didn’t say that much s*** about him.’

She claimed she often said positive things about him, but they weren’t aired.

‘I was asked so many times… ‘Do you find Luke attractive?’ and I’d be like, ‘Yes, I do find Luke attractive. I’m just not attracted to him,’ she said.

The last time they spoke was at the reunion, where she said they embraced.

‘For me, there’s no bad blood with Luke,’ she said.

‘If I saw him today, I’d just give him a hug.’

She also hit back at one narrative she says was unfairly edited, claiming footage showed her shaking her head when Luke asked her to greet his sisters, but she did go over.

‘In reality, I went over to his sisters and I gave them a hug… I would never, ever not say hi to someone’s family,’ she said.

The dinner party chaos – and being ‘frozen like a statue’

Mel didn’t just reflect on her own storyline. She weighed in on the explosive feuds dominating the season, including the clash between Gia Fleur and Bec Zacharia, admitting she’s remained ‘Switzerland’ to protect both friendships.

‘I don’t like drama,’ she said.

She recalled being physically frozen during one dinner party as the table erupted.

‘You know how it’s like flight, fright, freeze. I’m freeze,’ she said.

‘I was just kind of looking around and being like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.’

Mel also said she regrets not speaking up more as the cast faces backlash for staying silent.

‘For someone like me who’s not confrontational, it’s not a fun environment to be in,’ she said.

‘I regret it’ – and the heartbreaking reason why

In perhaps her most emotional moment, Mel admitted she regrets doing the show, not because of her own reputation, but because of what it’s done to her family.

‘The hardest part about all of this is seeing how upset it’s been my family,’ she said.

She revealed her grandmother was thrilled to watch her on TV, even learning how to use streaming and social media for the first time.

‘My grandma was so excited… she downloaded 9Now… she even got Instagram,’ Mel said.

‘And what hurts me a lot is… because she’s only got MAFS on her Instagram feed, she’s gonna be fed so much of the Mel hate.’

Where to now – therapy, resilience and one message for trolls

Mel said she’s now seeing a psychologist regularly and is trying to rebuild after what she describes as a terrifying few weeks.

‘My coping strategies… have been speaking to a psychologist regularly,’ she said.

She’s also trying to stop hiding.

‘Don’t hide in my room because that’s also the worst thing I could do for my mental health,’ she said.

Despite the pain, she said the experience has forced her to toughen up.

‘I’m so much more resilient now,’ she said.

And she had one message for the people who’ve piled on.

‘I would never ever write a mean comment about anyone online, and I would never attack anyone’s appearance or their character,’ she said.

‘They write a comment and then they just turn around and go to bed. But that comment I read and I think about… and that’s not fair to do to somebody just because they didn’t like a boy.’