Married At First Sight (MAFS) 2026 fan favourite Sam Stanton has admitted that it was “really confronting” to see Gia Fleur‘s scathing thoughts about him, revealing that they were actually friends during the show’s production.
There’s no doubt that Gia and Sam’s on-screen hubby, Chris Robinson, have formed a strong friendship during this year’s MAFS shebang. So, naturally, when cracks began to appear in Chris and Sam’s relationship, the polarising bride sided with Chris.
The besties’ bond was so strong that unseen footage, which aired on MAFS: After The Dinner Party, showed the pair dragged Sam together in a confessional, with both Gia and Chris mocking the 34-year-old fitness studio owner for living in a sharehouse.
“I’m sorry, if you’re successful, why are you living in shared accommodation with multiple people?” Gia said with Chris adding that Sam “was all about coupons”.
Married At First Sight‘s Sam Stanton on Gia Fleur and Chris Robinson’s friendship
Speaking to PEDESTRIAN.TV, Sam revealed that castmates weren’t allowed to speak to other cast members. However, Gia became Chris’ “main point of contact for advice” during the experiment.
“We weren’t meant to call or speak to other cast members, and I was very much a rule follower until the very end when things were dire,” Sam told P.TV.
“But Chris would always call Gia for advice, like, quite often in the apartment, or I’d see him calling when we walked outside and stuff, so that was his main point of contact for advice.
“That was just his best friend on the show. They were talking, gassing each other up. I can’t really say who’s worse in that situation, they both were gassing each other up all the time to make poor choices.”
Married At First Sight‘s Sam Stanton reveals he was friends with both Gia Fleur and Bec Zacharia
Although Sam had a friendship Bec Zacharia — who’s dubbed Gia as her “arch nemesis” on this year’s MAFS — the fan favourite also confirmed he had a connection with Gia and that he’d also defended her from the Experts during a Commitment Ceremony.
“What’s been really confronting is for Gia to say, ‘I never liked Sam’,” Sam shared.
“At the Commitment Ceremony, I defended her against the experts. I’m actually friends with her at the reunion, I say ‘I’m really proud of you, you took some ownership tonight’. I was friends with both of them.”
Sam went on to slam rumours that the show’s drama was a “Chris and Gia versus Bec and Sam” situation. However, he did confirm that the bride would tag along with Chris to “attack” him.
“All that’s true is Gia would jump on with Chris to attack me, but I would never, ever ask Bec to do that,” Sam told P.TV.
“Like I even asked Bec at the Dinner Party [last week] when we were going in, when I’m sitting with Bec and Danny — which wasn’t shown — I said, ‘I don’t want you to back me up blindly, I want you to listen to Chris’s side, I want you to listen to my side and then make comments that can help us move forward’.
“Whereas I saw Chris run straight over to Gia and be like, ‘You better back me up in there’. And she’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve f*cking got you babe’. It was disgusting.”
Where do Sam Stanton and Gia Fleur stand now?
Reflecting on the show, and what has been said about him in the confessionals, Sam admits he’s “not surprised” about what he’s seen.
“But the Gia that I knew during the experiment — which you’ve got to remember, I don’t see anything that happened in the apartment and I hadn’t seen all this manipulation that was happening behind the scenes at that point — I would have been very surprised to hear that then. But after watching the show and getting more of a background into Chris and Gia it’s not surprising,” Sam shared.
“I wasn’t surprised by it, but it was probably worse than I thought. I didn’t think that would go that nasty and stoop to those levels and just lie. None of that stuff’s even true.”
So far, Gia hasn’t shared her two cents on the drama between her and Sam. However, in an interview with Chattr, Chris has since backflipped on shady remarks on Sam living in shared accommodation, revealing that he now has a housemate.
“The thing is… I have a housemate as well. I’ve just had someone move into my farm with me. So the share house accommodation thing, yeah, it was just a silly moment in time,” he told the publication.
“One of my best mates has moved into the farm with me. So I’m really in no position to be saying anything about share accommodation.”
Honestly, with all this tea, it makes me wonder if Sam and Chris’ relationship would be different if Gia wasn’t in the picture…
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