Married At First Sight (MAFS) 2026 groom Danny Hewitt has followed in the footsteps of his controversial co-stars by issuing a public apology for his downright awful behaviour on the reality show.
While the UK-born real estate agent was given a laidback “larrikin” edit for the majority of the season, his true feelings towards his wife Bec Zacharia were aired on this week’s episode of the Stan aftershow MAFS: After The Dinner Party.
“You’re telling me that’s the best you can bring me? You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Danny told producers in the unaired moment.
“I have a f**king cushy little life, I gave up my life to be here, and I could roll into Coles right now, walk up to aisle four, there’s a bird in there, and she’ll be better than Bec. She can’t be no worse, it’s impossible.”
Bec, who watched the “revolting” clip for the first time on the couch alongside Rachel Gilmore, told PEDESTRIAN.TV’s podcast Villain Edit that she thought his comments were “horrific”.
“It’s horrific for any woman or man to watch, but also, it’s like the mask slipped. That’s the true person there,” she said.
The interview clip wasn’t the only shocking comment Danny made throughout the experiment, with the relationship experts airing a montage of controversial unseen footage at the Reunion.
In the package, he said he’s “never met a b***h that don’t love me”, he would “never fall in love with [Bec] on a month with Sundays”, and his future without Bec would be bright because “there’s going to be women queuing up for me” after the show.
Danny posts an apology video
After regaining access to his social media accounts on Thursday, Danny posted a video addressing his comments on the show for the very first time — as he chose not to attend the Reunion or appear alongside Bec on After The Dinner Party — and said he completely understands the backlash he’s copping online.
“I’m sure most of you hate me. I don’t blame you. I hate myself, so join the club,” he said.
“But I just wanted to jump on here and just apologise, obviously, for some of the comments I made — or all of the comments I made on the Stan After The Dinner Party show. Horrendous. I’m so ashamed of myself.”
He went on to apologise to Bec and fellow bride Stephanie Marshall, who he called “a f**king little skank” in unseen footage, and said he’s “so sorry”.
“I do have a very dry sense of humour, and sometimes it can come across wrong, especially on TV, especially to people who don’t know me,” he continued.
“But I’m not here to make excuses or blame it on a sense of humour or anything like that, I’m here to own up to my mistakes and just apologise. Any viewers who watched it and found it offensive, I’m so sorry. Production, the whole team at MAFS, I let them down. I let so many people down, so I just want to apologise to everyone.”
Danny ended the video admitting he’s “probably got a lot of soul searching to do” and encouraged viewers to write negative comments, saying: “If you see me in the street, throw some tomatoes at me, some eggs, whatever. I deserve all of the heat I’m getting at the minute and I’ll take it on the chin.”
Fans react to Danny’s post
Danny’s followers have since had a very mixed response to his post, with the majority of people questioning whether he’s actually sorry for what he said or just because he got caught.
“That was not a dry sense of humour, that was disgustingly horrendous,” one person wrote, while another said, “Pretty sure what you said about Steph and Bec wasn’t dry sense of anything, it was just pure insults”.
“Saying loud on national TV that Bec is three out of 10 is not a sense of humour, it’s awful,” someone else replied, with a different user writing, “Not falling for it. Damage control”.
Others joked that the only reason Danny posted the video was because “the birds at Coles rejected him” and asked whether he had apologised to Bec and Steph directly — which he responded saying he had.
Surprisingly, plenty of people said he didn’t need to apologise because he was “an absolute gentleman throughout the series” and was simply being “brutally honest”.
Danny certainly isn’t the first man on MAFS to make controversial comments about his wife on national TV, and unfortunately, he won’t be the last. But while we wait to see if he actually grows from the backlash, the reality remains: women on this show are regularly crucified for far less. While a man’s “bad behaviour” is dismissed as a quirk or sense of humour, a woman’s mistake is treated as a permanent character flaw.
As Danny so often liked to say on the show, “men used to die in trenches” — let’s hope this man can simply learn from his wrongdoings.
Obsessed with reality TV? Check out PEDESTRIAN.TV’s new podcast Villain Edit, where we unpack all the wild, chaotic and messy moments from your favourite shows. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
