The Block stars Paige Beechey and Jesse Maguire have revealed the status of their relationship after suddenly quit the program.
The engaged couple, who were dubbed the 2024 ‘villains’, exited earlier this month after producers were forced to intervene during an explosive argument.
However the pair have revealed that the experience brought them closer than ever before.
‘We actually walked away quite closer. That’s what’s insane, we walked away from The Block closer,’ Jesse told Yahoo this week.
‘Not one bit did we ever question our relationship. For me, I just questioned parts of myself and how I can be a better person in general.’
Paige agreed with her fiancé, telling the publication: ‘Likewise. ‘
After seeking professional help, the couple cited mental health stress as they gave up their place on the competition, with their exit prompting much conversation about the show’s care policies.
Paige has since hit out at producers about her ‘horrific’ experience on the show, while a 2023 contestant on The Block has taken aim at the program’s aftercare.
The Block stars Paige Beechey and Jesse Maguire have revealed the status of their relationship after suddenly quit the program. Both pictured
In light of the controversy, it has now been claimed that Channel Nine are reviewing their mental health policies across the board to prevent another dramatic incident.
‘After Monday’s episode of The Block an unexpected chain of events kicked off after a mental health warning featured prior to the show starting,’ a source exclusively told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The network wants to know your story and if you don’t speak up some practices may never be properly addressed.’
The source claimed that many former contestants on The Block felt ‘triggered’ watching Jesse and Paige’s exit, which saw them advised to speak to a professional.
Former stars of the show are said to have been reflecting on the alleged lack of support during their season.
Some ex-contestants are believed to have asked Channel Nine over the years to pay for their psychologists’ assessments after appearing on the program.
The engaged couple, who were dubbed the 2024 ‘villains’, exited earlier this month after producers were forced to intervene during an explosive argument
‘It was mainly the former Block contestants that were triggered by the episode on Monday night,’ the source added, noting that there had not been an influx of viewer complaints.
Producers are said to be ‘looking back through their process’ to improve Nine’s mental health plans on reality TV shows like The Block and Married at First Sight.
A Nine spokesperson said: ‘Nine and Cavalier Television takes its obligations in respect to the health and wellbeing of the participants of this program extremely seriously.
‘Nine has a service for all participants should they like or need individual and confidential psychological support.
‘This service gives participants access to clinicians who have been specifically engaged to support those involved in the program in relation to their experiences.
‘This service is available to all participants during filming, broadcast and once the program has ended for as long as they need it, it does not end’.
Following her sensational exit, Paige took to TikTok to break her silence on the drama, admitting she was ‘annoyed’ with her edit on the show.
‘We actually walked away quite closer. That’s what’s insane, we walked away from The Block closer,’ Jesse told Yahoo this week
She furiously slammed producers for her ‘horrific’ experience on the show and accused the show of editing her scenes to make her look ‘crazy’.
‘I’m kind of annoyed, I think I’ve put up with a lot throughout this season and I’ve said very little,’ Paige said in the first video.
‘But the way they handled that whole mental health departure was such a gross display of a TV show trying to cash grab for, like relevancy.
‘It’s really clear that they’re trying to step into their ‘woke’ era and this was very opportunistic for them at the expense of mental health.’
Paige said her and Jesse’s four weeks on the show were a ‘whirlwind’ but that everything was ‘smooth-sailing’ during the first two weeks of production.
She claimed the pair had a good relationship with producers who she said referred to her as the ‘Energizer Bunny’, but said it was a different story post-production.
‘Nothing broke my stride, there were no tantrums, no sulks, no arguments, no nothing for two weeks, and that’s obviously not what you guys saw,’ Paige said.
‘That wasn’t the narrative that they pushed because in those first two weeks, they just completely made it something that was not.’
‘They did that by literally putting full sentences in my mouth, and that’s what we like to call Frankenbites,’ she added.
‘They were chopping bits and bobs from everywhere and just smooshing them together so everything was in the context that they wanted, but it was glaringly obvious that things weren’t matching up.
‘They were just blatantly cutting conversations to make me look crazy. So we were quite frustrated with the first two weeks of how we were depicted. We were just sitting there like, ‘What?”
‘Not one bit did we ever question our relationship. For me, I just questioned parts of myself and how I can be a better person in general’ he added. Paige agreed with her fiancé, telling the publication: ‘Likewise’
She claimed she went through an ‘absolutely horrific experience’ in the show’s third week when they moved out of their tents into the completed guest bedrooms.
Paige alleged that during this time, crew members were coming into contestants’ rooms in the morning to film while they were sleeping.
‘Without prior briefing, no warning and absolutely no consent, the crew start coming into our rooms in the morning to film us whilst we’re sleeping,’ she claimed.
‘Being someone with a background with sexual assault, that was horrific.
‘You wake up in your bedroom, it’s pitch black, and you have three black figures, two or three figures standing over your bed, and it’s terrifying. And that’s how you wake up.’
Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting producers were aware of Paige’s experiences with sexual assault during filming.
Paige added that the alleged situation had caused her to ‘spiral’ and started to become ‘paranoid’.
Paige also said that she had been left ‘disheartened’ by producers’ reaction to her declining mental health.
She ended her videos by arguing that more needed to be done to prepare contestants for the experience.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Nine for comment.