Married At First Sight star needed therapy after ‘sick humiliation’ on show

Married At First Sight star Amy Kenyon has opened up about being ‘sexually degraded’ on and off camera while on the show.

The reality show’s UK edition has made headlines over the past week after a BBC Panorama investigation aired two women’s claims that they were raped by their on-screen husbands while filming the Channel 4 programme. A third alleged a non-consensual sex act. 

In the aftermath, Channel 4 bosses apologised to the brides, with executive Priya Dogra ‘deeply sorry’ upon watching the documentary and learning of the women’s ‘distress’.

‘Welfare across all our programmes is hugely important to us and is a primary concern,’ Dogra added in a statement. ‘However, I’m sure you’ll appreciate that Channel 4 cannot investigate the specific allegations against the men, which they have denied, nor can I comment on them in any way.’

Additionally, all episodes of MAFS UK have been pulled from streaming, but a final decision has not been made on its future.

Now, coming forward with her own story, Kenyon, who featured on MAFS UK in 2024 and has since been on Celebrity Ex on the Beach, has revealed she needed therapy due to ‘sexual harassment’ and feeling ‘uncomfortable’ with her partner, Luke Debono.

Speaking to The Sun, the 29-year-old began: ‘Sexual harassment went on, and mine happened on camera. I just had to deal with it, and everybody was just laughing at it. It was making good TV, even if I did feel uncomfortable 80% of the time.’

She described her time on the programme as ‘very, very, very difficult’, recalling telling producers that her match was like a ‘creepy guy [she] would avoid at the bar’, rather than someone she’d approach.

‘I remember having to share a bed with him that evening. And I thought, “Oh my God, I can’t do this”,’ she shared, with her and Debono joining later in the experiment as an ‘intruder couple’.

While sleeping together, Kenyon would ‘put pillows up as a barrier to keep him away from [her]’, reiterating to herself that, due to the unconventional nature of the social experiment, it was perhaps supposed to feel strange.

‘But you can’t help but feel sometimes, “Is this right?”‘

From there, Kenyon, who worked in sales at the time, questioned her decision to take part, as Debono, who is from Malta, made ‘very sexually explicit’ remarks and ‘derogatory jokes’.

‘I’m not that sensitive, but it was the fact that I was asking him to stop, and he wouldn’t.’

She further claims that his problematic behaviour started ‘straight away’, and she requested that he ‘tone it down’ during their Bahamas honeymoon.

However, as Debono noticed others laughing at his quips, ‘it just got worse and worse and worse’.

This involved discussing their sex life in front of other participants and the experts, taking his shirt off during a pottery session, and telling Kenyon that he ‘wished the stool he was sitting on were her face’.

‘I wish I’d have got down on my knees while you were cooking in the kitchen and terrorised your b*****e,’ he told her at one point.

Kenyon alleges that contestants were encouraged to both have sex and talk about sex on the show, but she would usually like to know someone ‘for a few weeks’ first.

‘The experiment is fast-paced, and you have to move at a faster pace. Looking back now, I wish I hadn’t,’ she admitted.

Once they did start having sex, Kenyon asked her partner not to reveal any private details during filming, begging, ‘Please don’t humiliate me,’ as she wanted her dad to be able to watch.

Debono ‘promised he wouldn’t’, yet a scene of him conversing with a fellow groom about their bedroom antics made it into the broadcast, which Kenyon didn’t know would feature until producers called to inform her.

She found Debono’s comments ‘disgusting’, but much of his alleged sexual harassment wasn’t filmed, among other ‘weird, sick things’.

Watching the series back, Kenyon felt ‘humiliated’ and has branded co-star Debono ‘the most vile human being [she’s] ever met’.

Having called it quits with him during the final vow ceremony, Kenyon believes she had a ‘lucky escape’, as Debono wasn’t permitted to return for the reunion show. According to the Daily Mail, bosses removed him after he ‘shocked both cast and crew with his aggressive behaviour’.

Now, Kenyon, who has praised Channel 4 for ‘thorough’ checks beforehand, is calling for 24-hour surveillance in the MAFS apartments, should it return for future series.

‘They can vet the people, but you don’t truly know who somebody is. So there is the risk,’ she said.

As for where Debono is now, the ex-prison education manager recently celebrated his 33rd birthday, which he documented on Instagram, where he boasts 102k followers.

’33 today 🤍 Another year of blessings and lessons’, his caption read.

Debono frequently shares snaps online from his life and travels, but he was ‘blocked’ by Kenyon straight after their time on Married At First Sight.

In a previous statement amid fan backlash to his actions when their season was airing, he wrote: ‘In light of recent episodes, as much as the support is appreciated, please bear in mind that [you] only see a snippet of our time together, and we are sometimes caught in vulnerable or heightened moments. Both Amy and I have zero tolerance towards negativity or hate.’