When The Block‘s Bianca Chatfield first reached out to Married At First Sight‘s Mark Scrivens on Instagram, neither suspected they’d end up dating let alone sharing a one-bedroom place during stage four lockdown. But for roughly 18 months, that’s exactly what they’ve been doing.
Bianca, who starred on Nine’s renovation show in 2018 with fellow netballer Carla Dziwoki, only watched the very end of her now partner Mark’s season of MAFS in 2019 when he was matched with single mum Ning Surasiang.
The 43-year-old bachelor famously lived a very minimalist lifestyle with just one cup and one plate – and pro netballer Bianca, 38, saw it firsthand when she moved in with him this year.
“Obviously people talk about [MAFS] all the time – when I started to tell people about Mark they’d say ‘Oh he’s the one with the one blue cup’ and it was all true,” Bianca tells Who.
“When I went into his place, he hardly had anything there so I’ve been able to add a few more appliances and a few more pieces of cutlery and crockery. Now it’s funny because we’ve got a juicer, a Vitamix and he went from having just one cup to having all these fancy appliances – he probably won’t be able to live without them!”
The couple’s romance blossomed in the 21st century way by messaging one another on Instagram and Bianca’s first message to Mark was one of shock.
“I think my first message to him was ‘I can’t believe you did this show [MAFS],’” she explains.
“It kind of came from a place of support and sharing the shows and then all of a sudden we’re going ‘This could work!’”
Bianca and Mark would talk for ages about their respective shows, comparing the physically draining Block renovation show with the emotionally draining relationship experiment that is MAFS.
“I couldn’t believe that they were only on camera or mic’d for certain amounts of the day, whereas we’re mic’d up for the entire day. You have to have lived and breathed some kind of reality show to really understand what it’s like and I think that’s why so many of us end up talking to each other in some kind of way.”
In the early days of their relationship, Bianca admits she was keen to keep things private and not go public until they were both comfortable.
“I was really conscious about keeping it low-profile for a while until we were both ready whereas Mark is happy to talk about his personal life – he has for so long on TV so it’s no big deal now,” she says.
“I think we’d been together for about six months when it started to come out and everyone was really supportive. I’m not a big one to read comments and get caught up in all of that – I’m probably very blissfully unaware of what people really think but in our world people were very supportive and happy for us.”
Fast forward to now and the couple are living together in Mark’s apartment after Bianca’s plans to buy and renovate her own home were dashed by the global coronavirus pandemic.
Bianca sold her own apartment in December 2019 with the hopes of purchasing the right property and doing it up so that she and Mark could live there. But in just a couple of weeks, plans changed, lockdown hit and the couple are still at Chez Mark.
“I moved into Mark’s with two suitcases of clothes and that’s it so I’m still rummaging through those two suitcases and learning to live a very minimalist lifestyle!” Bianca jokes, adding that despite having the majority of her belongings in storage, Mark’s made her feel welcome and comfortable.
“We’ve probably been there a lot longer than we thought we were going to be there but it’s actually been quite nice – it’s good obviously that I’ve got that place to stay but now we don’t really know what’s going to happen in the next six months,” Bianca admits.
“I’m still looking at properties and I’d still love to purchase but that’s why it’s been a very good time to reassess and make sure that whatever I do purchase is within my needs and not too outrageous or will push me too far.”
The pro netballer adds that the ANZ Financial Wellbeing Check-In has been “crucial” to her during this period.
“I’ve always been pretty good at managing my finances and I know that if I’m not earning as much within the freelance life that I do then I obviously can’t spend as much, but that’s probably as much thought as I’ve ever put into it before,” Bianca admits, explaining that now she’s been reevaluating her spending habits and working towards that big goal.
“I set up a renovation savings account because I know I’ve got my money there to purchase the property but I don’t really have any savings left for what renovations might need to be done because I love the renovation side of things.”
But despite Mark’s newfound interest in property, Bianca reckons she’ll be the head honcho when they finally renovate their future home.
“I’m pretty sure it will be all me and just when I need some heavy lifting done, that’s probably where he’ll come in to help. I mean who knows but I don’t think I’m going to see him own that space!”
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