GETTING married to a complete stranger while the whole process is filmed to entertain of millions of people isn't everyone's cup of tea.

But Robert Voysey – AKA Big Bob – chose to do just that when he appeared on Married At First Sight UK last year.

The business protection advisor, 27, got hitched to wellness coach Megan Wolfe and was embroiled in one of the show's biggest scandals when she snogged another contestant behind his back.

In an exclusive chat, Bob reveals how the wedding – and the events leading up to it – are filmed, and admits some key moments often require multiple takes, making the day feel long and unnatural.

He recalls: “I arrived at the hotel, and didn’t get married until about four hours later.

“I'm just stood in one room and they let my best man come in for a bit, which is obviously all filmed.

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“Then the worst bit was, once I'm all suited up ready to go, they give you the cue to walk into the room for the ceremony, and the first thing I do is see Megan's family, and I'm stood there awkwardly trying to make s**t jokes that went down like a lead balloon.”

Bob says he was left standing there for nearly an hour before Megan actually walked down the aisle, and remembers thinking she looked “like a princess” when he first saw her.

But what would normally be the most romantic moment of a wedding become agonisingly awkward for Bob and Megan, as they had to re-film their wedding kiss “five or six times”.

He says: “They were like, 'You may now kiss your bride,’ and, at first, straightaway, we both went in for the kiss, so that was quite nice. 

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“Then after that, we had to do it about four or five times. 

“I remember Megan going, 'Guys this is getting a bit awkward now, I've never even kissed someone in front of my family before, and now I've just done it five f*****g times with a stranger'.”

That wasn’t the thing Bob felt made their wedding feel unnatural; he says they were kept apart by producers following the ceremony to prevent them from getting to know each other off-camera.

Bob explains: “They were like, 'We don't want you guys to have private conversations off-camera because we want to catch all your first conversations.' 

“So I think the more drunk I was getting, I was just turning around to producers like, 'I just want to be able to have a chat with my wife. I'm being pulled from pillar to post here and I'm sitting on my own on my wedding day just getting drunk'."

“None of it felt natural – it was the most mental day of my life. You're being chaperoned at your own wedding.”

Friends' reactions

Many MAFS viewers are sceptical that the participants’ friends and family are genuinely shocked when they’re told of their loved one’s decision to marry a stranger.

But Bob claims producers go all out to get an authentic reaction.

He says he was asked to meet up with his mates at a pub – where production had put money behind the bar – to film them.

Bob recalls: “I told a couple of close friends like, 'You'll never believe what I applied for?' but I didn't hear back for months so I put it to the back of my mind. 

“Then when it started getting serious, it was during lockdown, so I hadn’t seen them much.

None of it felt natural – it was the most mental day of my life. You're being chaperoned at your own wedding

“But when I was suddenly like, 'Yo boys, I need six of us to come to a pub so I can tell you some news and it's going to be filmed,' they must've known it was something along those lines.

“When I actually told them, that's when the penny dropped.”

However, none of his friends’ actual reactions could be used in the final edit as Bob says they were “absolutely steaming” thanks to the complimentary bar tab.

Bob laughs: “I said to the boys, 'Let's keep it calm, let's keep it relaxed, just having a few beers, we're just going to talk about some stuff'.

"Then I remember about an hour in looking around the table, there's shot glasses, there was beers, cocktails… I was like, 'You boys are a f*****g nightmare!'”

Dinner party rows '10 times worse' off-screen

Bob’s friends’ drinking had nothing on the rest of the cast, however, as he says only one out of the three dinner parties went ahead in full – with production having to halt the others due to heated rows.

Viewers saw Nikita Jasmine removed from the show after a huge outburst, but Bob claims it was “10 times worse in person”.

He says the dinner parties – which are a main feature of MAFS – took around 12-13 hours to film, which led to the cast sneaking in alcohol and getting drunk.

Recalling the first dinner party of the series, Bob tells us: “They put you in your little holding rooms before the dinner, and we’re all sat chatting.

“Everyone was sneaking bottles of wine, vodka in and getting smashed in their rooms. It was brilliant.

Everyone was sneaking bottles of wine in, bottles of vodka and getting smashed in their rooms. It was brilliant

“But then, because they were quite loose with the alcohol, it ended up going absolutely mental. 

“It all kicked off so much with Nikita and was 10 times worse off camera, so they cancelled the dinner party and we all had to go back to our apartments.

“People were literally storming off set, back through where all the producers and camera crew were, effing and blinding.

"There was pushing and shoving. We had two massive security guards constantly there. They were right in the middle of it and it basically lost control. 

“What was on-screen was tame."

Cheating scandal

One of the explosive dinner party rows came after Bob discovered Megan had cheated on him with Jordan Mundell – who was married to Alexis Economou.

Bob admits he had an "inkling" she'd been unfaithful after Alexis told him she'd been flirting with Jordan, and Megan apologised for "the way it was going to come out" moments before they filmed the commitment ceremony.

He recalls: "I was angry. I was upset, I went through every emotion possible in a minute."

Megan and Bob eventually split and left the show – but he insists his wife did try to make things work, and they're still in touch.

"We get on like a house on fire," he says. "On our honeymoon, we had a really nice romantic dinner, but they cut all that because obviously it probably didn't fit our story."

Bob reveals he's now met someone else – and was relieved she hadn't watched MAFS before.

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He adds: "We've been dating for a couple of months and it's going really well.

"She's now watched the series – she's glad she did it the other way around!"

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