Sunday night’s episode of Married At First Sight (MAFS) was definitely unique, with controversial bride Brook Crompton shown abruptly exiting the experiment during the Commitment Ceremony.
Just as relationship expert Mel Schilling began calling out her behaviour at the recent Dinner Party — saying she’s “never experienced a woman be so vicious toward other women” — Brook announced she had to go to the toilet. The 27-year-old model simply never returned to the couch, and chaos ensued as the producers tried to figure out WTF was going on.
Naturally, viewers were left asking plenty of questions about the show’s Commitment Ceremonies, so PEDESTRIAN.TV has done some digging into how the iconic episodes are filmed.
Can MAFS participants take toilet breaks in the middle of filming?
The episode marked the first time viewers had seen a participant get off the couch in the middle of their session with the experts to go to the bathroom, which seemed like a massive loophole to avoid the drama.
2024 bride Eden Harper told P.TV that while no one on her season interrupted their time with the experts for a pee break, it’s not surprising, as the Commitment Ceremonies are incredibly long.
“Each couple would be on the couch with the experts for probably an hour, so if you were busting, you could just say that,” she revealed.
“I would be more likely to say it when someone else was on the couch. I would whisper it in my mic like, ‘I really need to get up, I need to go to the bathroom’, or ‘I need a water, I need something’.”
How long do the MAFS Commitment Ceremonies go for?
Eden said the first few Commitment Ceremonies were particularly long because there were so many couples in the experiment, but there was usually a filming break so people could go to the toilet and eat dinner.
“If every couple gets an hour on the couch for the first few Commitment Ceremonies, they can go for like 10 hours,” she shared.
“I don’t think we had breaks towards the last Commitment Ceremony when there were only four or five couples, but the first ones, because there’s so much to get through, they would do three or four couples and then have an intermission. We’d all go out the back, have snacks, drink, eat for like half an hour, they’d serve you dinner, and then you come back and they do the rest of the couples.”
Why did some people have hot water bottles?
When John Aiken stood up to speak with the producers about Brook’s disappearance, viewers noticed that he was sitting in front of an orange hot water bottle. Chris Nield was also holding a hot water bottle on his lap and was shown telling a producer that he didn’t want to put it behind him until Brook returned.
Eden explained that participants often use hot water bottles and wear jackets when attending the Commitment Ceremonies because the show films in winter and the warehouse is “absolutely freezing”.
“There were times when I was sitting there shivering, and I was like, ‘Please bring me a blanket’. You cannot go in there without a jacket,” she recalled.
“If it was hot outside, the place was like a sweat box and you couldn’t escape it. But if it was cold outside, it was quite literally freezing, like numbingly cold. I used to bring blankets, trackies, hoodies, everything.”
Are the episodes shown in chronological order?
An anonymous 2026 participant revealed to P.TV that Sunday night’s episode was edited out of order, and Brook and Chris’ couch session wasn’t actually the last scene filmed. Instead, Stella Mickunaite and Filip Gregov were the final couple who sat on the couch, but the order was changed during post-production.
“Brook walked out halfway through the Commitment Ceremony. She and Brook were the seventh couple on the couch, and Stella and Filip were last,” they said. “Also, the experts said goodbye and everything at the end of filming, but none of that was shown on TV.”
It’s not uncommon for the show’s editors to change things around for shock value, and I think we can all agree that Brook’s dramatic exit was the perfect way to end the episode.
However, it’s a good reminder not to believe everything you see on TV — and for future participants to dress warmly when attending the Commitment Ceremonies.
Obsessed with MAFS? Check out PEDESTRIAN.TV‘s brand new reality TV podcast Villain Edit, where we unpack all the wild, chaotic and messy moments from the show. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
