Married At First Sight (MAFS) bride Rachel Gilmore has shared that Bec Zacharia was still keen to release “finger bang” merchandise after the drama that stemmed from the term at the Couples Retreat.
“Before airing, she was like, ‘We should do it! It would be funny! Come on, think about it!’,” Rachel tells PEDESTRIAN.TV. “And I was like, ‘No, sorry. For me, it just seems like a money grab at my expense.’”
Quick catch-up: When Bec used the comment “finger bangs” to congratulate Steven Danyluk and Rachel on reaching a new level of intimacy, Rachel quickly pointed out that she didn’t appreciate the “joke” made about something important for their relationship. Bec apologised, but then proceeded to make jokes about creating “finger bang” merchandise, something that upset Rachel further.
While Rachel admits that Bec suggested they do the merch before the episodes aired, she also shared that Bec instantly agreed with her decision and that the conversation was “quickly” put to bed. “I do not believe that merch is getting made anymore,” Rachel shared, stating that it’s not something she would buy if it ever did get released.
What we didn’t see from the MAFS Couples Retreat
While we saw Bec make comments about finger bang merch when she was by the pool, what we didn’t see, however, was the effort Rachel made to ensure Bec was comfortable that day. “I was actually at the pool beforehand hanging out with everyone, having some fun,” Rachel explains to PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“Bec and Danny [Hewitt] had just got back from their date — so they actually had a little date that day — and I was like, ‘Look, I’m just going to remove myself because Bec and Danny should be able to spend time with everyone as well and not feel like they have to walk on eggshells around me.’”
Rachel continued: “Knowing that I took myself out of that area with everyone so Bec would feel comfortable to hang out with everyone, and then she went leaning into that [merch conversation]. I was like, ‘Ooh, you’re making a joke on top of a joke that you already knew had upset me, and you’ve done it after I’ve left’. So that was quite hurtful to watch.”
Are MAFS‘ Bec and Rachel friends now?
Despite everything that’s gone down on MAFS this week, Rachel tells PEDESTRIAN.TV that her and Bec are “very close” to this day. “Bec’s friendship is something that I’m very grateful for,” she explains, noting that the pair have been supporting each other throughout the latest episodes.
“We’ve really been there for each other, even through this week,” Rachel explains. “We were really dreading watching this week back.”
Rachel notes that Bec gave her a heads-up about the things she said, but that seeing her voxies was a “hard watch”.
“That hurt my heart, definitely, because I never spoke about Bec in that way at [the] retreat at all,” Rachel said. “I think the one voxxie that hurt the most was when she was laughing about it.
“To kind of pile on to that [how upset Rachel was], that was definitely a very hard watch.”
Regardless of what went down at the MAFS retreat, Rachel understands where Bec was coming from. “I can also look at it through the lens of, she was frustrated with the situation because she didn’t think that that comment would have that impact.”
She continues: “It was two friends, a situation arose, and we were both so frustrated that we couldn’t communicate to understand each other, and so it boiled over. But we’re so close now, and we talk every single day. I wouldn’t have it any differently.”
With women at the centre of the toxicity of this season of MAFS, I’m happy that these two were able to eventually work this situation out and come out the other side as friends.
Chantelle Schmidt is a freelance writer. You can follow her on Instagram here.
