Married at First Sight Australia season 12 episode 19 spoilers follow, following its airing on E4.
MAFS Australia viewers have found themselves siding with Eliot Donovan over Veronica Cloherty after more fraught conversations aired in the latest episode shown in the UK.
After the previous photograph task, Veronica was frustrated that she wasn't getting anything more than "surface level" from him.
In a confessional, he said that he wants to "do my best to open up and be vulnerable" and wrote her a letter detailing an incident from his past.
"It's a story I've never shared with anyone else, one of my most deep and harrowing memories," he said. "It affected me so much as a child; it's deeply personal."
He explained that when he was nine years old, he found out that his sister had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
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"It felt like it was the end of the world, there was no hope," he said, but seeing his dad be strong and stoic changed his opinion, and it stuck with him.
"I never want to be overwhelmed by emotion. Like everyone, I feel things, but I try to identify and understand the emotion, rather than be controlled by it," he said.
She responded by thanking him for sharing his story and saying that it was "very nice" of him to do that.
However, in a confessional, she said it was the "perfect opportunity" for him to really tell her something but didn't. "He doesn't have the capacity to give anything more," she said in frustration.
Hours later, Eliot noted a change in Veronica's demeanour and that he was getting "no engagement" from her.
Related: MAFS Australia fans praise "hero" sister after tense row: "Warrior woman"
When he asked her why, she said she felt like "the trauma felt it happened to someone else" and he didn't talk about his own feelings.
"My most painful memory isn't enough for you?" he responded. "I poured my heart out."
"You poured your heart out? I didn't feel like I learned anything from you," she snapped back.
Most viewers on social media sided with Eliot and thought Veronica had been quite harsh on him in the episode.
"How is Elliot in the right now wtf," wrote one fan, while another said: "I'm stunned. Eliot is sharing what was a traumatic event for him as a child and the overwhelm of emotion for him…and Veronica showed ZERO empathy for how scary that event would have been to a child."
"If my Mum dies but I'm still alive, it's had no effect on me?! Absolute nonsense," someone else said, while a further post read: "She simply just had to ask him questions about how it made him feel. Instead she’s turned into a big thing - quite juvenile really.
Related: MAFS Australia star Jack thanks fans for support following split from Tori
"I dare say Veronica got the ick because what she was expecting and what was delivered were two different things," one viewer surmised. "Instead of just being open to whatever form of expression was being offered."
"I can't believe Veronica is going to make me defend Elliot," someone else said.
Some viewers sided with Veronica, with multiple fans stating that they felt Eliot's story wasn't all that emotional. One even commented: "It's like Eliot asked Chat GPT for that letter".
The next day, Veronica admitted that she overreacted a bit, but the couple soon returned to arguing. He said that him telling her that story was a big deal for him, and he had been met with a "condescending" tone and rhetorical questions from Veronica.
Veronica admitted that her walls were up and she didn't trust him, and while he felt like the conversation had gotten "productive" and wanted to move forward, she up and left.
"It's kinda funny – I thought I was supposed to be the guarded one," he said.
Married at First Sight UK airs on E4 in the UK. Married at First Sight Australia airs on Nine Network in Australia and E4 in the UK.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
