DESPITE quite a few heated arguments, it seemed like Erica Roberts and Jordan Gayle were one of the few success stories from last year’s series of Married At First Sight.
However, by February, the MAFS couple, who met at the altar on their wedding day, confirmed they’d split up.
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Erica wrote on Instagram: “This hasn’t been an easy decision for us both as we really wanted to make our relationship work.
“I truly wish him all the best and there is no bad blood between us.”
But now, in an exclusive interview with The Sun, as the new series of MAFS returns, Erica reveals it wasn’t quite as amicable as she first made out.
In fact, she dumped him after constant rows and it was an event on his 27th birthday that became the final straw for her.
“It was a long time coming,” she tells us. “ I just completely started losing myself, trying to look after him.
“I feel like I very much took that role in the relationship.
“He needed a lot from me and I think he really put a lot of pressure on me to be his sole support system.
“And that’s too much for one person.
“I want to be your partner and your lover, not your therapist and your mum. It just got too much for me.”
She continues: “I felt like I was giving masculine energy and I just never want to feel like that.
“I feel like I’m at the stage now where I’ve always had to look after myself and that is just how I am. I don’t ask people for help.
“But it would be nice to be in a relationship where I just knew they had me and I just didn’t have that.
“The relationship was just not balanced whatsoever.”
Breaking point
Jordan and Erica appeared on MAFS last year, meeting for the first time on their wedding day.
They were an ‘intruder couple’, joining the E4 experiment late, and seemed to be one of the most loved-up pairings.
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However, Jordan was caught up in one of the biggest feuds of the last series when Luke Worley punched him before being axed from the show.
Then, during the explosive reunion show, Erica and Jordan’s co-star Laura Vaughan said the couple were non-stop arguing while they were living with her.
And the pair were also seen arguing on that episode too.
But the breaking point came on Jordan’s 27th birthday, when Erica surprised him with a trip up to Scotland, where she lives.
I was like, ‘I’m done. I cannot continue this. This is insane behaviour.’
Erica Roberts
She recalls: “He was so angry at me, at the fact that, yes, I’d taken him away for his birthday but then I was unable to come to Sheffield to play ten-pin bowling with his mum.
“So he basically kicked off and went crazy at me for not going bowling and said that I gave him the worst birthday of his life, he’s only 27 once and I ruined that for him, even though I’d taken him to this beautiful place up in Scotland.
“Bear in mind, this man’s never taken me out for dinner the whole time we were in a relationship, yet he told me that what I’d organised was the bare minimum.
“So I thought, ‘You know what, I’m tapping out. I actually can’t do this anymore.’ And that was it.
“I was like, ‘I’m done. I cannot continue this. This is insane behaviour.’”
Unaired honeymoon row
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Erica went on to reveal there were “a lot of red flags” throughout their relationship, and alarm bells started ringing for her as early as the wedding day.
They also had an unaired argument on the last night of their honeymoon in Antigua that caused Erica to start having doubts.
She says: “Even on the wedding day, he was interrupting me and not able to really have a conversation, or I would speak about myself, and he’d flip it back on to him.
“That was continuously happening on the honeymoon.
Looking back now, the warning signs were literally there from day one
Erica Roberts
“We had a really big argument on the honeymoon, on the last evening and none of that was shown.
“It was very much like, Jordan and Erica are in love and happy, but it wasn’t all like that.
“There’s definitely a lot of things that went on that viewers didn’t get to see.
“I said to him, ‘I do feel like you’re kind of dismissing the things I say, and not really listening to me, or you just want to talk about yourself.’
“And that led to him having an absolute meltdown.”
She continues: “I think I knew from that moment. I knew that his communication skills were pretty much non-existent at that point.
“He’d have a meltdown about what I’ve said and I then would have to comfort him because he’s upset about how he’s made me feel.
“And that was literally the common theme in our whole relationship.
“So looking back now, the warning signs were literally there from day one.”
Congratulated for dumping Jordan
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Many of Erica and Jordan’s MAFS co-stars seemed to have beef with them throughout their time on the show.
And one, Georges Bert, said it was down to Jordan’s behaviour, accusing him of causing arguments to get more airtime, something he claims he told him he was doing.
He told The Tab previously: “You’ll see, he tried to pick on everyone. Nothing pleases him. Watch, he very very rarely says anything positive.”
And Erica tells us how most of her co-stars have congratulated her on finally breaking up with him.
I was like, I’m going to end up needing therapy if I continue with this relationship.
She says: “Everyone was really supportive of me rather than him.
“They were all like, ‘Well done, you got rid of him. It was a long time coming. This had to happen.’”
Erica says the reason she stayed with him for so long was partly because there were some good moments throughout the relationship.
However, a lot of it was down to the pressure she felt from fans.
Mafs couples that have stood the test of time
Loved-up Tayah Victoria and Adam Aveling of series six fame had the first Mafs baby.
The pair couldn’t keep their hands off each other on the programme and quickly found their feet in the outside world, moving into Adam’s Doncaster home.
Just 18 months after meeting, the couple welcomed their daughter Beau.
Season five couple Michelle Walder and Owen Jenkins also managed to make their marriage work away from the cameras and had their first child in December.
Teacher Michelle, 29, has no regrets about taking part in the experiment. She told us: “I just feel very lucky and thankful that it has worked out – and excited for everything to come.”
Michelle and Owen were both sick of dating apps when they applied in 2019.
Owen recalled: “I had been out for some drinks with a friend after work.
“While he was out for a cigarette I was scrolling on Instagram waiting for him to come back in.
“The MAFS advert was the last thing I saw, and I joked, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I signed up?’
“A few beers later when I was back at home I sent in the application, and the rest is history.”
Another couple to make Mafs UK history is Zoe Clifton and Jenna Robinson.
Despite a slight rocky start, where they clashed over Jenna’s vegan lifestyle, the show’s first same sex pairing are still going strong.
They even have a successful podcast together called Life With a Pod.
Jenna shed light on being involved in the show earlier this year when she told us: “We’re not legally married, and I never felt like we were. I definitely feel the process makes you take the relationship a lot more seriously and having the help of the experts… if you can survive that process it sets a firm foundation for a long-lasting relationship.”
“I did, genuinely, really like him, and I wanted to make it work,” she tells us. “And there were so many good qualities that we did have as well. Obviously, it wasn’t all bad.
“We had so much fun with each other.
“But I do think when you come off a show like this, there is a pressure around it, as a couple. “You have all these people being like, ‘Oh, my God, we love you guys and you’re amazing. We want you to work.’
“I think obviously that that did have a factor in it, like you do want to make it work, and not just for yourself, but for people that watch the show.
“That’s hard… It is tough to maintain that and try and make it work, and I did try for as long as I could. It just got to the point where I was, like, alright, this is actually not even worth it.
“My mental health is much more important than trying to make this work.
“I was like, I’m going to end up needing therapy if I continue with this relationship.”
‘Good luck to her’
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Despite saying he was “heartbroken” by the split at first, Jordan has now moved on with Melissa Golik, an emergency nurse from Australia.
While Erica is still single, she insists she’s happy for her ex – and he won’t be appearing on her You and Me podcast, which she hosts with her Traitors winner best pal, Meryl Williams.
She says: “We haven’t spoken since we broke up.
“Obviously he came out and did all these podcasts about me and was crying online and s**t. Then he popped out a whole new girlfriend, which is great because I literally was like, ‘Please, instead of making these podcasts, please move on. Please go heal. Do what you have to do. Just stop talking about me.’
“And that’s what he’s done. So it’s great.”
She adds: “Good luck to her because I’ve been there.
“But I’m happy. As long as he’s good, then that’s fine.”
Erica and Meryl’s You and Me podcast is out on all streaming platforms.
