HAVING copied his wedding vows from the internet and declared “I love you” within minutes, Arthur Poremba’s marriage was off to a bumpy start.
The cheeky antics of the London tennis coach, 35, clearly didn’t impress Married At First Sight UK match Laura Vaughan, who grimaced immediately after he dropped the L bomb last series.
MAFS stars Arthur Poremba and Laura Vaughan got off to a rough start on the show[/caption]
She cringed after he declared ‘I love you’ during the wedding vows[/caption]
Arthur says he was ‘smashed most of the time’ on the show[/caption]
Initially, she wasn’t keen on him due to him not being her normal “Chelsea boy type” and while the Tottenham charmer eventually won her over, it was far from a smooth ride.
Finance manager Laura was accused of treating Arthur like “a child or pet”, even referring to him as a puppy, and her pals were branded “vile mean girls” online for savaging him in one scene.
The Londoner was blindsided when his wife dumped him at the vow renewal ceremony, insisting she was “a fixer” but their “relationship can’t be fixed”.
Now in an exclusive chat with The Sun, Arthur reveals she hinted they would break up in a text the night before the show ended, that he had a fling with another MAFS bride and is being ‘pursued’ by a Hollywood star.
He also gives his take on Laura and shares behind-the-scenes secrets including punishments for partying, the real reasons why he was absent during episodes and the groom who’s got a bit big for his boots.
“When I first saw Laura I thought she looked nice but I wasn’t like, ‘Mmm, I can’t wait to rip her clothes off’. The physical attraction wasn’t there at first,” Arthur tells The Sun.
“I definitely fancied her more as the weeks went on but f***ing hell that ‘Chelsea boy’ nonsense followed me throughout the show and even now after MAFS.
“It’s mad whenever I’m on the tube or bus, people yell that at me or shout “I love you” because of the wedding vow. Oh my god, Jesus Christ, it’s so embarrassing.
“I did deserve it. I took my vows from the internet but I didn’t have much time to prepare because I was moving out of my place.
“I literally took the first vows possible, wrote it all down, and didn’t even think. The worst bit is I added the ‘I love you’ bit myself. It was all nonsense.”
Despite the humiliating blunder, Arthur says he “loved every single second” of the show and reveals he was approached twice before accepting.
He felt it was “a shame” Laura didn’t give their relationship a go in the real world and reveals she sent a cryptic text the night, hinting she may dump him, before she ended things.
“I didn’t have any heads up and was a little taken aback,” Arthur admits.
“The night before the vow renewal she messaged me saying, ‘Whatever happens tomorrow I want you to know I’ll always try to look after both of us’.
Arthur spills the beans on his ‘relationships’ with MAFS bride Amy Kenyon[/caption]
Laura’s pals were branded ‘mean girls’ and ‘vile’ for their mean grilling of Arthur in one scene[/caption]
“I didn’t really make anything of it at the time but looking back, it was like, ‘Oh, I see why you messaged me that the night before now.
“It was a bit of a shame but I wasn’t in love with her. It’s not like there was a massive emotional connection between us. But we had put a lot of work into the relationship.”
Arthur says many MAFS fans have said the dumping made her bad and they often pity him over her friends pulling him apart during one of the homestays.
“They are like, ‘Laura’s friends were awful and horrible to you’ but viewers only saw five per cent of it. The edit made me look like a softie and like I didn’t fight back but I did.”
Nice little earner
Arthur says going on MAFS UK is a no-brainer because of the chance to find lasting love, the exposure that could earn you a fortune and… the money you receive.
“They give you whatever you would have been paid at work, you have to prove what you earn so can’t say you make £10,000 a week,” he tells us.
My head was killing after most of the dinner parties. I reckon If I was sober I would have been mute, I don’t think I would have been as entertaining
Arthur Poremba
“I think they have a maximum is probably around £1,200 to £1,300 a week. It’s a good deal. You’re not working, getting everything paid for and staying in a beautiful apartment.”
When asked if that would rule out high-earning investment bankers from the show, Arthur suspects that’s the case believing they typically like to cast “self-employed people” like him because it’s easier.
Strict curfews
In previous years, MAFS stars have told us about secret cast parties, all-night benders and daring games that led to partner swapping.
Arthur says last year’s season was a bit more tame due to having a strict 9pm curfew – but that didn’t stop excessive drinking and small acts of rebellion.
“We would go out for drinks and there were a lot of sore heads in the mornings,” he tells us.
Arthur copied wedding vows from the internet – but admits the ‘I love you’ bit was all him[/caption]
He says the commitment ceremonies played havoc with his anxiety[/caption]
“One night three of the girls got into trouble. They didn’t get back in time so had to talk to the executives the next day.
“I remember if we missed the curfew it would become earlier, like 7pm, meaning if we broke the rules we had less time to enjoy ourselves.”
‘Worst thing’
Arthur says he’s learned a lot from the process, admitting he previously struggled to talk about his feelings, but says filming can be tricky.
He explains: “It gets awkward, you’re sitting in a bed with a massive camera on top of you being told ‘Guys, talk about how you feel about each other’.
“It’s not scripted like Love Island but you are put in awkward situations, like talking about how you feel in front of 20 people in a room.”
They would whisper in your ear, ‘No more for you, you’re done’. That didn’t stop you getting drunk though, I was smashed most of the time on the show.
Arthur Poremba
The hardest scenes for Arthur were the commitment ceremonies because filming spanned from 7am until midnight, which wreaked havoc with his anxiety.
“I have severe anxiety, I’m not able to sit still for long so you can see my leg shaking constantly in the scenes,” he tells us.
“You sit there for five or six hours waiting to be called up next. You just want to get it out of the way. It’s the most nerve-wracking part of the show.
“It’s the worst thing and it’s made worse by having 20 to 25 cameras there, lots of producers, directors, the experts, and then the couples too.”
He says there was “a lot of waiting around” in holding rooms during the show which lasted “for hours and hours and hours” with only unhealthy snacks on offer.
“There’s nothing but a few chocolate biscuits. I didn’t like that. Why do you think JJ [Slater] got bloody diabetes?” Arthur quips.
Laura blindsided Arthur by ending things at the vow renewal[/caption]
He says he would have ‘been a mute’ at dinner parties if not for the booze[/caption]
Mystery absences
Viewers may have noticed Arthur barely appeared in the first few weeks of the show and now he reveals why.
He says: “I caught Covid. It must have been on the way back from the honeymoon. The guy who sat next to me on the airplane kept coughing non-stop.
“After I was in a bad way for 10 or 11 days. They just kept me in the apartment and stopped filming, which is why I didn’t get as much exposure then.”
However, his absence at the reunion was fully self-inflicted with castmate JJ previously revealing that Arthur “was very, very ill” after a boozy night out.
It was a one-night-only thing. We had been talking for a while and then after she went quiet for three months
Arthur Poremba
“I was wasted that night and hanging the next day,” he admits. “With my anxiety, there was no way I could sit still on that couch. Laura was not happy with me missing it, which is fair.”
On the show, he says there were booze limits and producers would approach castmates who had too much to drink to tell them they had been cut off.
Arthur says: “They would whisper in your ear, ‘No more for you, you’re done’. That didn’t stop you from getting drunk though, I was smashed most of the time on the show.
“My head was killing after most of the dinner parties. I reckon If I was sober I would have been mute, I don’t think I would have been as entertaining.”
Secret MAFS fling
Since leaving the show Arthur has been bombarded with female attention, telling us: “I’ve had photos of every single body part you could think of. Photo, photo, photo.”
But he insists he’s not into flings and wants to find someone to settle down with, quipping that he doesn’t want to “end up like Calum Best”.
Arthur had a ‘fling’ with this year’s MAFS bride Amy Kenyon[/caption]
Arthur was linked to another MAFS star – Blackburn wedding planner Amy Kenyon who is currently on TV screens in this year’s series alongside husband Luke Debono.
He says: “It was a one-night-only thing. We had been talking for a while and then after she went quiet for three months.”
Arthur says they “connected on a spiritual level” and bonded over a shared love of house music – unknown to him when she cut contact she was filming MAFS.
“I didn’t have a clue she was going on the show. She didn’t say and we didn’t talk about MAFS, which was one of the things I liked about her.”
£15k freebies
Despite not finding love, Arthur says he has no regrets about going on the show because it’s led to interest from scores of women, celebrity encounters and thousands of pounds worth of freebies.
“It hasn’t made me a millionaire, I never thought it would. The main reason I went on the show was to find love, exposure was second,” he tells us.
Now JJ’s with Katie Price, he thinks he’s the biggest thing going. When I met her she was all over the place, but she clearly loves the attention
Arthur Poremba
Arthur’s just returned from a free cruise worth £3,000 and is due to head to Dubai for an all-expenses-paid trip with a roster of famous faces for charity football event Sellebrity Soccer.
It has allowed him to meet stars including his “favourite actor” Stephen Graham, Harry Redknapp, Calum Best, Gary Lucy and Danny Dyer.
He tells us: “With Danny Dyer, what you see on screen is what you get with him.
Arthur jokes that MAFS co-star JJ Slater thinks he’s the ‘biggest thing ever’ since dating Katie Price[/caption]
“I’ll tell you what he does that’s funny, every 25 minutes he smokes, he has a cigarette… even while playing football.
“It’s the first thing he does in the breaks and then he’s back on the pitch, I don’t know how he does it. I would not be able to run around after that.”
He’s also been on a couple of boozy nights out with former EastEnders star Dean Gaffney, who he says “gets recognised left, right and centre”.
Arthur adds: “This guy loves a female. He loves it, he’s got good chat as well.”
He stayed close with some MAFS pals including Ella Morgan, who recently appeared on Celebs Go Dating, whom he says is “smashing it”.
Arthur is also in touch with co-stars Georges Bert, Thomas Kriaras, Terrence Edwards and JJ Slater, who is dating Katie Price.
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.”
He quips: “Now JJ’s with Katie Price, he thinks he’s the biggest thing going… When I met Katie at a boxing event she was all over the place, but she clearly loves the attention.”
Now more than a year on from his appearance on MAFS, Arthur says he and Laura only “occasionally exchange messages” but it’s “nice seeing her” when they do catch up.
He tells us he’s considering launching an OnlyFans page because it makes “big money” and he wouldn’t rule out appearing on future reality shows
Arthur’s one bit of advice to people considering going on MAFS is: “Do it.”
He adds: “I loved every single second of it. The team treats you well, you get paid, you’re off work for three months and you get a bit of exposure too. What could go wrong!”
A Channel 4 Spokesperson told The Sun: “Contributors do not get paid to appear on Married at First Sight but are provided with financial compensation for loss of earnings due to the time taken for filming.”
