Married At First Sight NZ bride, Kara Lester has slammed her husband in a series of Instagram stories. Photo / @kara_lesterr
Married At First Sight NZ bride, Kara Lester has slammed her husband in a series of Instagram stories. Photo / @kara_lesterr
A Married At First Sight NZ bride has addressed Monday night’s episode, claiming there was more to the story than was shown on TV.
Kara Lester and Mike Wilson were the first couple to wed on the show and while their relationship appeared promising initially, it quickly took a turn with Lester insisting Wilson had not been authentic about his feelings toward her or his reason for being on the show.
Wilson has maintained he is being his true self, however following Monday’s episode, in which the pair fought over how genuine he is, Lester has taken to Instagram to add “context” to their fight.
Married At First Sight NZ bride, Kara Lester has slammed her husband in a series of Instagram stories. Photo / @kara_lesterr
“Everyone’s making this fight out to be about the text, but it wasn’t,” the 33-year-old car saleswoman declared. She was referring to a text fellow bride Samantha Best showed Lester from her husband, James Hunt, seemingly telling Best that Wilson doesn’t find Lester “attractive” despite consistently telling her she is “beautiful”.
For more Married At First Sight NZ news and all the recaps, click here.
“Basically, 30 minutes before the camera crew arrived, Mike lay beside me and wiped tears - I hate to say they’re fake but he wiped tears that weren’t there - and told me that he was feeling overwhelmed,” she said.
Lester further explained she asked her onscreen husband why he was feeling that way, to which she claims he replied: “I just miss my friends and family.”
The face of a woman who has receipts. Photo / Warner Bros. Discovery
Stating she is “fairly logical”, Lester said it was a comment that didn’t make sense as she claimed the businessman and former The Apprentice NZ star was seeing his friends and family “nearly every day”.
The Mafs bride added on top of that comment, in Sunday night’s episode, Wilson admitted he is afraid of abandonment. “What you don’t see is that I reply and say ‘Have you ever been abandoned?’ to which he responds to me ‘No, I haven’t, I always leave before I can be abandoned’.”
Claiming, once again, his statements were not making sense to her, she said, “You’re telling me you’ve got abandonment issues, but you’ve never been abandoned. You’re telling me you’re overwhelmed because you miss your friends and family but you’re seeing them nearly every day.”
She then addressed the “text” Best showed her again.
Microphones picked up the exchange between the two brides. Photo / Warner Bros. Discovery
While the exchange was only captured through the brides’ body microphones and not on camera, viewers soon learnt it was Hunt telling Best that Wilson said he was not “attracted” to his wife during the boys’ night on Sunday.
Wilson’s exact words were, “I don’t feel a strong sexual urge toward her”.
Lester told her followers, “It’s just that he ‘showed’ me emotions,” - creating quotation marks with her fingers - “30 minutes conveniently before the camera crew arrived and asked me about it conveniently on camera and I thought ‘Nah, it’s f***ing bull****’.”
She added, “That’s why I was calling him out, just to clarify for everybody.”
Wilson appeared upset during his fight with Lester on Monday. Photo / Warner Bros. Discovery
Lester and Wilson butted heads in Monday night’s episode, when Lester questioned how genuine Wilson was being with her.
“Like this morning, obviously you came and sat next to me and told me you were feeling overwhelmed, it doesn’t feel super real to me,” she told him.
Wilson reactively told the confession cam, “I’m definitely feeling a little surprised by this conversation. I was having a little cry on the floor this morning, it felt like my feelings weren’t being validated when I was sharing. Then I was being told they weren’t that way.”
He then told his on-screen wife, “I’m damned if I do, and I’m damned if I don’t.”
The onscreen couple's fight ended with Wilson walking away. Photo / Warner Bros. Discovery
Lester continued to tell Wilson, “I feel like you are not genuine and you’re hiding behind a big persona and nothing has felt real to me, this whole time, I don’t know where to go from here because I’ve worn my heart on my sleeve”.
Wilson replied, “I’ve been as real as I can. Like, there’s nothing that I’ve tried to manoeuvre or anything, like, I’ve just brought things up as they are.”
Things did not get any better between the couple on Tuesday night’s episode and Wilson told the experts he felt as though when it opens up, “it’s almost like a gaslight” as he claimed his onscreen bride questions the authenticity behind his words.
Despite their couch session with the experts failing to clear the air between them, the couple decided to stay for one more week and will participate in “home visits” next week, during which they will meet each other’s families.
Married At First Sight New Zealand airs on Three and ThreeNow every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Lillie Rohan is a London-based reporter covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the Herald in 2020. She specialises in all things relationships and dating.
