Former Married At First Sight star Mike Gunner plans to apologise to Elizabeth Sobinoff

He shocked the entire nation after he made controversial ‘sexist comments’ during the Married At First Sight finale in 2019. 

And now, Mike Gunner wants to make amends for his past words at the Grand Reunion special. 

In an interview with 9Entertainment, the 46-year-old revealed that he particularly wants to apologise to Elizabeth Sobinoff. 

‘I did want to tell Elizabeth that … I wanted to explain to her that I wasn’t as informed as I should have been when I defended Sam [Ball],’ he told the publication.  

‘I wanted to explain to her that that’s something I regretted.’ 

Mike is referring to an incident where he defended an absent Sam, after Elizabeth was talking about footage she had seen that featured Sam talking about her body. 

‘Look, he shouldn’t have said those things about your body,’ he said. 

‘That’s unfair, but put it this way: I’ve seen the way you treat me, so I’ve seen how you behave. I can only imagine that you drove him away with that behaviour. That’s the truth of it.’ 

The reality star also admitted that he wants to address his claim that women don’t do well under pressure compared to men. 

‘I had made a sexist comment which… In a moment that was a very stressful moment and I felt like I was being browbeaten by the group and I wanted to say something provocative,’ he added. 

‘But I hadn’t given it due consideration and it came off wrong and it came out wrong. I hadn’t put a lot of thought. It was ill-considered and it backfired. That’s a regret.’ 

After relationship expert Mel Schilling addressed how the brides treated each other throughout the series, Mike decided to chime in. 

‘There’s a few things I’d like to point out. I think groups of women under pressure don’t cope as well as groups of men under pressure.’ 

As the contestants gasped in shock, he continued: ‘There’s differences between men and women, don’t mistake that.

‘I mean, the matriarchy and the patriarchy are two different things entirely, and there are different dynamics at play.

‘We’re seeing these girls have fallen apart and the men haven’t.’

Mike concluded by claiming the MAFS experiment is harder for the brides than grooms, simply because of their ‘biology’.

‘Any group of women that are put in this same type of situation, maybe this just doesn’t speak to their biology… there is actually some merit in that,’ he said, causing shock around the room.

The Married At First Sight Grand Reunion premieres Sunday, January 31 at 7pm on Channel Nine