Married at First Sight star Leah Tyrer has just filmed the show’s explosive reunion, where she came face to face with her bride Leigh Harris for the first time in months.
During their time on the show, Leah believes that Leigh kept her ‘dangling like a carrot’ to get them to the final all the while having made a pact with her secret girlfriend away from the cameras.
The reunion episode won’t hit our screens until early next year, but with filming for the main show having wrapped back in May, a lot has happened since the two went their separate ways in an emotional final vow ceremony some six months ago.
Glamorous businesswoman, and proud scouser Leah, 36, is now in a relationship with Everton footballer Maz Pacheco, 28, and the pair are excitedly planning their first Christmas together as a couple.
But had it not been for her time on the hit reality TV dating show, Leah doesn’t think she’d have been in the right place to find happiness with her new love.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Leah said: ‘When I found out that Leigh had a girlfriend away from the show it all kind of made sense.
Married at First Sight star Leah Tyrer has just filmed the show’s explosive reunion, where she came face to face with her bride Leigh Harris for the first time in months
‘The way she’d been with me, she wouldn’t touch me and would avoid doing anything remotely intimate during the experiment. She went into the show for all the wrong reasons, for her it was all about finding fame.
‘I think that’s why she kept me dangling like a carrot so we’d get to the final. I’ve seen the proof, I’ve seen the messages and yes I did confront her about it all when we filmed the reunion show.’
While Leah didn’t find love on the E4 show with Leigh from Romford she has no regrets about taking part because she spent three months working on herself.
She said: ‘It was like three months of therapy! I can’t fault the show, the way they looked after us all and having the third party psychiatrists on hand whenever we needed them. I feel like a different person coming out.
‘Obviously when I first left the experiment it took me a little while to be myself again but after a coupe of weeks I got my mojo back. I went back to my normal life but then boom in September the show came out.
‘I’ve been really really lucky everyone has been so nice. I’ve had so many lovely messages from people, young women who were telling me about their own sexuality journeys and I always reply to those kind of people. When I first went into the show I thought I was bisexual as I’d been with both women and men, but now after everything I am definitely 100 per cent a lesbian.’
During the show the psychiatrists picked up on Leah’s Autism and ADHD so when she came out she decided to get herself tested.
She said: ‘That’s another positive that came out of the show. They said it to me quite early on and I’d always felt like there was something but I’ve always been happy with who I am and have a fantastic and supportive family.
‘But it was in the back of my mind when I finished filming so I decided to get myself tested and have been diagnosed with both Autism and ADHD.
The former couple’s issues on the show initially stemmed from Leigh’s admission that Leah was too feminine for her liking, but she was willing to give the relationship a go after the pair were matched by experts
The former couple’s issues on the show initially stemmed from Leigh’s admission that Leah was too feminine for her liking, but she was willing to give the relationship a go after the pair were matched by experts
Glamorous businesswoman, and proud scouser Leah, 36, is now in a relationship with Everton footballer Maz Pacheco, 28, and the pair are excitedly planning their first Christmas together
Glamorous businesswoman, and proud scouser Leah, 36, is now in a relationship with Everton footballer Maz Pacheco, 28, and the pair are excitedly planning their first Christmas together
‘I’m now on this new journey navigating the world knowing that I see things differently to others.
‘That’s the thing there are so many different variations of Autism and ADHD, school was tough for me, I’d always get into trouble, and didn’t cope very well academically.
‘Getting diagnosed at 36 has definitely been an eye opener. I’m still learning about it all and would very much like to do some things around my diagnosis and helping others.’
Leah is very much looking forward to spending Christmas with her girlfriend Maz. She said: ‘We’re going to Cyprus to spend Christmas with my family and then we’re off to Dubai for New Year. We’ve known each other for 13 years and have always been friends but it was only when I came out of the experiment that we started seeing each other.
‘I’d done so much work on myself that I was finally ready to have this incredible relationship with Maz. I’ve never been happier. I take my Nan to the games, she’s the only one in my family who supports Everton, the rest of us are all Liverpool fans!
‘It’s been funny because everyone now thinks I support Everton but no, I’m still very much a red.’
It comes after Leigh launched a blistering social media attack to ‘set the record straight’.
Leigh and Leah’s relationship got off to a rocky start on the show and things soon went from bad to worse before they agreed to call it quits on their relationship.
One of their most memorable arguments on the show took place in a bar when Leigh became suspicious of her wife’s behaviour towards a woman in a bar.
It’s now emerged that the same woman – Maz – is in a relationship with Leah, despite Leah’s insistence that they were not flirting on the show.
Leigh hit out at her ex-wife on Instagram following the revelation, writing: ‘I then saw a photo of Leah and her partner in a comment section to which I then realised that, the ‘girl in the bar’ is the same person that Leah is now in a relationship with’
Leigh hit out at her ex-wife on Instagram following the revelation, writing: ‘I then saw a photo of Leah and her partner in a comment section to which I then realised that, the ‘girl in the bar’ is the same person that Leah is now in a relationship with’
Leigh wrote on Instagram: ‘Shortly after myself and Leah argued on the show about my suspicions of her behaviour toward the girl in the bar, I saw a couple of comments about Leah and her new girlfriend, as it was mentioned that they’d been seen together prior to filming the show.
‘I then saw a photo of Leah and her partner in a comment section to which I then realised that, the ‘girl in the bar’ is the same person that Leah is now in a relationship with.’
The former couple’s issues on the show initially stemmed from Leigh’s admission that Leah was too feminine for her liking, but she was willing to give the relationship a go after the pair were matched by experts.
Leigh, a clinical coder at the NHS, continued: ‘Naturally I was shocked, as I’d watched myself in the experiment be persuaded I’d over reacted for expressing my concerns at the time and had nothing to worry about.’