Sharon Gaffka Demands Better Safeguarding for MAFS UK

Love Island star has called for bosses to introduce 'specialist safeguarding professionals' following claims of sexual assault on the  show. 

The star hit out that 'better welfare provision is crucial' after the reality series was hit with rape allegations in a Panorama documentary last week. 

Three women made allegations of rape and sexual misconduct against their partners on the show to the show in the special, which hit screens on May 18. 

Former MAFS UK star Shona Manderson said she got an abortion after her on-screen husband, Brad Skelly, took things 'too far' during sex and 'a boundary was crossed' when he ejaculated inside her without permission. He has said he understood he had consent.

Waiving her anonymity, she described how she 'completely lost her light' during filming, which saw experts raise concerns about Brad's alleged 'controlling' manner towards her that saw them ultimately be asked to leave the show. All the men are understood to deny the allegations against them.

Two other female contestants reported being raped by their on-screen husbands, with one informing both Channel 4 and the production company only for the episodes to still be aired anyway.

The other described being left with bruises from the attack and said her partner also threatened to throw acid over her.

Now, Sharon, 30, has insisted that the bosses of the show - which was pulled from screens after the allegations - must ensure 'specialist safeguarding' workers that are 'separate' from the production company must be on hand if it continues. 

Writing in The Guardian, Sharon penned: 'At the moment, welfare teams are still embedded within production structures. They sit within the same ecosystem as the people responsible for delivering storylines, ratings and “successful television”...

'If reality TV, more specifically dating formats, is going to continue existing – and I don’t think the genre is disappearing anytime soon – then safeguarding needs to become entirely independent from production and commissioning. 

'It should not simply be a department within a show. It should be its own specialist entity with real authority.'

She went on to encourage that 'dating show welfare teams should, as a non-negotiable, include specialist safeguarding professionals' including 'independent domestic violence advisers' and 'social workers' working 'separately from editorial priorities'. 

Sharon also suggested that contestants on the show should be given access to 'people trained specifically in trauma-informed safeguarding'. 

The former Love Island star concluded by encouraging TV bosses to remember the contestants are 'real people' and that 'ratings success should not matter more than someone's safety'. 

It comes after it was revealed that the new series of Married at First Sight was 'axed' by  bosses following the rape allegations. 

The dating show was set to return to screens for its eleventh series in September, but plans to air the episodes, which wrapped last month, have now reportedly been scrapped. 

Earlier all ten series of Married at First Sight UK, known as , were removed from the channel's streaming service and an external review into contributor welfare commissioned.

Channel 4 said that no final decision on the future of the series has been made, with a spokesperson adding: 'We have just announced an external review into contributor welfare on MAFS UK and we need to see what that finds before deciding what happens next.'

It's been warned the series could even face a police probe. Security Minister Dan Jarvis has said he is 'extremely concerned', adding: 'I think it's highly likely that there will be a referral to the police and it will be a police matter for them to investigate.' 

Shona, the only woman of the three who is identified, alleged her partner, Bradley ejaculated inside her without her permission leaving her 'shocked' and 'confused' as 'we said we weren't doing that'.

Shona later went to get the morning after pill and was accompanied by a welfare producer. But soon after she discovered she was pregnant and made the difficult decision to have an abortion.

She says she does not know for sure whether the pregnancy was a result of the incident. Shona later informed production company CPL about it, but lawyers for the firm say she told them she did not have a problem with it. 

Around the same time, Brad was being called out on air by the show's experts for speaking to his partner in a controlling manner. The couple were later removed from the show due to concerns that their relationship was unhealthy.

In a statement to the BBC, Brad said he categorically denies 'any allegations of sexual misconduct, or that he was controlling'.

A second woman, referred to by the pseudonym Lizzie, told Panorama her on-screen husband raped her and subjected her to violent sex that often left her with bruises, despite her telling him to stop.

She described how one night: 'He tried to have sex with me. And I kept saying no, that I didn't want to do it.

'But he kept saying, "You can't say no, you're my wife". And he just did it anyway.'

Lizzie added that she was too scared to tell anyone about what was happening as: 'He said that if I told anybody what had happened, that he would get someone to throw acid at me.'

Lawyers for CPL told Panorama that Lizzie did not mention the 'can't say no' comment to its team and the 'acid' remark was mentioned as a 'passing comment', not a threat. CPL took action as soon as Lizzie said she felt unsafe, the lawyers added.

A third woman, Chloe, also described being raped by her MAFS husband, with her allegations being raised both with CPL and Channel 4 prior to them being shown to the public - but the episodes in which she featured were aired anyway.

She told the programme: 'He smirked and climbed on top of me, moved my leg… By that time, I'd really given up and I just didn't want him to be angry at me when the cameras came.

'I just lay there, and I stared out the window.'

Chloe - also a pseudonym - added that once her partner noticed she was not participating, he told her: 'You're making me feel like a rapist'. 

It is understood that both men implicated in the allegations deny the accounts. 

Experts have warned the allegations could end the show - which sees singletons matched before meeting each other for the first time at a non-legally binding wedding ceremony - for good in the UK.

But even if it does disappear from British screens, its fate elsewhere - MAFS currently has series in almost 30 countries - is less certain. 

Government figures, womens' charities and television executives have all raised concerns about the allegations.

Culture, Media and Sport Committee chairwoman Dame Caroline Dinenage said the premise of the dating show, which sees single people 'marry' strangers who they meet for the first time on their wedding day, was 'horrifying' and that she was 'unsurprised' by the sexual assault allegations.