Married At First Sight Australia has officially come to an end following a memorable 2024 season which introduced us to 20 new contestants and two new couples in its first episode.
Sara Mesa and Tim Calwell were the first pair to be coupled up by the love experts in 2024, with Alessandra Rampolla calling the match “spicy” and John Aiken saying it may be the best match they’ve ever made.
But did Sara and Tim go the distance after MAFS? Here’s everything we know about their relationship.
Watch Below: Married At First Sight Australia | Best man’s speech rocks Tim and Sara’s wedding
Are Tim and Sara Still Together?
Although they may have had a bumpy ride, Sara and Tim were one of five couples to make the final vows commitment ceremony – and we finally have answers on where their relationship now stands.
Despite remaining together during the reunion, Sara confirmed with 9Entertainment that the couple had since split.
“We broke up a month after the Reunion,” she admitted to the publication. “We didn’t speak for a little while after, it was hard for us both but a few months down the track we started talking again.
“We’re definitely friends now, we are very amicable. It’s been good to be on good terms because we went through this crazy ride together.”
Who are Sara and Tim dating now?
In April 2023, Daily Mail revealed Tim was dating 31-year-old Gold Coast business owner Barbara, however, neither individual confirmed nor denied the rumours until the following month when the MAFS groom posted an Instagram tribute to his new girlfriend.
“Here’s to a real Queen,” he wrote alongside a series of photos. “I’m so blessed to have this woman in my life, she takes care of me, supports me and treats me right. She lights up every room she walks into and I could just look at her face forever 🤤.”
“As they say, when one door closes another one opens,” he continued. “Obviously I had a pretty challenging time on MAFS, but at the end of the day I think it really proved to myself I was ready for commitment and somehow oddly enough opened my heart up to receive love by a good woman.”
As fans patiently wait to see what’s next in store for Sara, we’re looking back at the former couple’s rollercoaster MAFS marriage…
Inside Tim and Sara’s Wedding
“I would say I’m a catch,” Sara told producers in her introductory scenes. “I’m very determined and career driven, I’m social, I’m always out. Sometimes I’m like, why am I not wifed up already?”
Smart, beautiful, and on the hunt for a man she can build a life with, the 29-year-old nutritionist was confident and bold on the outside. But in her chat with Alessandra, she became vulnerable and revealed she had previously struggled in her last relationship.
“When I was with my ex, he ended up cheating on me multiple times with multiple women. But I just kept going back to him for years, even though it was toxic and manipulative, I couldn’t help myself,” she told Alessandra.
Sara said she now wants someone “emotionally intelligent, well travelled, fit, and charismatic.” Enter Tim, running through the beach like some kind of Baywatch-meets-MAFS crossover character.
Tim is a 31-year-old “charming surfer boy” who has a successful online business.
Why does Tim need the help of three experts to find love? According to him – and we stress, in his own words – his ex was “being a naughty girl” and cheated on him. A lot. This led to embarrassment and a desire to find someone more committed.
“I do need the experts help because I want a committed relationship and I want to meet the person I want to spend the rest of my life with,” he said, adding he wanted to find “fire” with somebody.
Upon confirming the match, expert Mel Schilling said “this couple have the potential to be lightening in a bottle, they are exactly what each other have asked for and, I believe, what each other need.”
“When you think about the matches we’ve made over the years, it might be the best match we’ve made over the entire series – in terms of their personality styles and just the chemistry that I think will leap off the table with both of them,” John added.
And when they first laid eyes on one another at the ceremony, it seemed like the experts might be right.
Tim wowed his bride by speaking Spanish, telling her “I’m enchanted to meet you my love, you are incredibly beautiful.”
The vows went smoothly and the pair even shared a sweet smooch when they were pronounced husband and wife.
Things took a swift turn at the reception, though, when the subject of their previous romances came up. Tim made the shock revelation he only split from his long-term partner six months ago – and had been planning to propose to her this year.
“So I need your help…” he started, before Sara cut him off to say “to get over your ex?”
He was right to let the ex-girlfriend cat out of the emotional trauma bag, but this wasn’t the time and place. At least for Sara.
Tim quickly shut down her line of thought, but it was clear it stuck with Sara as she told producers “that was a slap in the face” before telling them she thinks he is “probably not” over his ex, given the circumstances.
And then of course, came the best man speech straight from the gates of hell.
Tim’s Awkward Best Man Speech
With a mullet, microphone, and false sense of confidence in his comedic delivery, Best Man Ben delivered a speech that will surely haunt the wedding guests for years to come.
He took the approach of roasting Tim, bringing up past sexual experiences, strange food tangents, and awkward jibes at the bride.
“I was not surprised when I heard Tim was partaking in this experiment,” Ben began his speech. “Because Tim is a man of science. He’s quite fond of experimentation.
“Experiment 551, romance at high speed: is road head safe?” he said, to gasps from the crowd. “Experiment 552, is it okay to get head in the ER since you crashed your car and you’re here now anyway?”
The speech continued in that same vein, until he ended on a story about Tim eating “rancid” chicken at a music festival.
And then he said: “So here we are, experiment 865, I mean Sara. Tim is a wonderful human being, he radiates charisma like the sun, and Sara you can find solace in the fact that, rancid or not, Tim will still eat you.”
Sometimes we ask “are men okay?” but this speech seems to warrant a more pressing question: “why?”
Sara was left unimpressed at the end of her wedding reception, telling producers she would be pulling back from Tim after initially being smitten by her suitor.
“I’m just really annoyed,” she told producers. “I would have gone into this full-force but now I’m like just taking it back. Tim needs to step up, he really make me feel special. At this point in my life I will not accept anything less than 100% effort. If I was going to take minimal effort, I would just be dating in Sydney.”
The Phone Swap Challenge
Less-than-stellar first impressions aside, Tim and Sara surprised everyone when they became one of the more stable couples in the first weeks of the experiment.
However, the couple quickly hit another bump in the road when Sara refused to partake in the phone swap challenge.
“I haven’t given you a reason not to trust me. So, what’s the point?” she said. “It’s invasive.”
Sara Bails on Dates
The second dinner party of the season saw the couple’s relationship deteriorate even further, with the pair’s argument escalating to a yelling match.
Sara, who admitted she was struggling to adapt to living with a man 24 hours a day, remained defensive, explaining she saw no problem with bailing on three dates Tim had organised.
“He’s really upset about the dates which I think is so silly,” she told the cameras. “I wanted to see my girlfriends, that shouldn’t be a problem. He’s being too needy.”
Both the experts and contestants added their own perspectives to the argument, labelling Sara as defensive and both parties in the wrong.
The night ended with Sara in tears and Tim ashamed about raising his voice – but their issues still unresolved.
Sara & Her Ex-Boyfriend Derail Dinner Party
Audiences watched Eden grapple with a secret during the Couples Retreat in Byron Bay and were appalled to learn the details as she explained her difficult situation.
“I’ve been given information I didn’t want,” she shared with the cameras. “It’s a secret that can affect a lot of people in here.”
“I’m feeling so uncomfortable and so anxious…I don’t know what to do.”
Explaining that she felt like she was in a “lose, lose” situation, Eden admitted the secret had the possibility to ruin her friendships with other contestants if she went public with the information, or would see her risk losing her partner, Jayden, if she chose to lie and keep quiet.
“Somethings happened. It’s not to do with Jayden, it’s to do with somebody else,” she told producers. “I’ve received a text message, of something that someone’s done to someone else that’s quite bad.”
Sitting down with Jayden, Eden divulged more details, explaining Sara had messaged her before the retreat asking to borrow clothes for dinner. The problem? Sara explained that she was meeting up with her ex.
Eden and Jayden confronted Sara the following night at the dinner party, giving her an ultimatum: Tell Tim where she was last weekend, or they will tell him themselves.
At the beginning, Sara tried to play down the situation, telling her husband that she had “run into” her ex. But after Jayden and Eden called her out she admitted the reunion was planned.
“My ex and I are still friends,” she explained. “I’ve told Tim I’m friends with all my exes.”
“Nothing happened, but I did hang out with him.”
“I feel lied to,” Tim told the cameras after walking out. “I just feel heartbroken…I feel like I tried so hard to meet her expectations and it was never enough for her and now it’s pretty obvious why. Bailing on the date, lying about where she was on the weekend – It was so obvious. She was cheating on me.”
Whilst Tim was devastated, Sara remained adamant she had done nothing wrong.
“I didn’t cheat on the guy,” Sara explained. “I didn’t do anything that remotely terrible, but I know the group will make it a big deal.”
“Yes I went out with my ex on the weekend,” she explained to the table. “We had a few drinks together. Yes, I did ask Eden for something to wear. Yes, I did want to look good for my ex [but] he’s dating someone [and has] been dating someone for six years…I didn’t do anything with my ex – all I did was have drinks.”
The experts who had been watching the situation unfold from afar slammed Sara’s actions, noting that she had still hadn’t apologised and was now defensive and combative.
As Sara continued to excuse her behaviour, she added that the reason she went behind his back – because she “didn’t want him to feel “insecure.”
The group wasn’t quite on board with Sara’s explanation, questioning if her continued contact with her ex was why she had previously refused to participate in the phone challenge.
“I’m disappointed. She’s still into this guy…I feel like an idiot,” Tim added as he shared with the group that Sara had previously revealed she had slept with her ex a month before the experiment started.
Stephen further probed Sara about the allegation, to which Sara admitted that she had hooked up with her ex while he had a partner but that she didn’t cheat on Tim, however, her actions were slammed by her fellow brides and grooms who felt it was an ethical and moral issue.
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