ICYMI, MAFS Australia is back on our screens, providing plenty of fuel for group chat gossip seshes the next morning. If you've never seen the show before, the premise is as follows — a group of single men and single women (some straight, some gay) are paired by experts based on a variety of factors, including personality types, ambition, life goals and looks. Sounds simple, right?
The matched couple enjoy a whirlwind ‘blind date’ wedding, where they're wed before ever having actually met (cue bridesmaids sizing up the groom and rogue comments from in-laws), before being swept away on a destination honeymoon and then moving in together. It's… a LOT, to say the least, and some couples don't weather the process very well at all. The high-stakes pressure combined with drama among the rest of the couples (two words: dinner parties) makes for excellent viewing, however.
MAFS Australia 2026 has provided plenty in the way of controversy and drama. The post-show updates of Chris and Brook. The screaming matches of Juliette and Joel. The highs and lows of Bec and Danny.
One hot topic on everyone's lips is the coupling of estate agent Stephanie Marshall and ex-military soldier and property investor Tyson Gordon. According to the experts, the pairing was set for success — both have traditional, conservative values when it comes to life and family expectations. Tyson was described on the show as being ‘regimented, conservative, and unafraid to stand by his beliefs, even when they’re polarising'. No comment. But, in the end, things didn't work out too perfectly. Here's everything we know about MAFS Australia's Steph and Tyson…
Did Steph and Tyson hit it off from the start?
Despite aligning in their outlooks when it came to gender role expectations and their traditional beliefs, the pair didn't hit things off immediately. In fact, their first meeting could be described as a massive flop.
Tyson immediately wrote Steph off as having ‘woke vibes’ as she walked down the aisle. In the pre-wedding interviews, Tyson had criticised those he deemed as ‘woke’, and said he wasn't interested in a romantic partner who had those beliefs, saying she can't have ‘green hair, woke ideas’.
As well as appearing ‘too woke’, Tyson was also immediately turned off by the fact that Steph is two years older than him, saying: “Having someone older than me, it just feels weird”.
Why did Steph and Tyson not get along?
Although she'd initially requested someone who had conservative beliefs like herself, Steph found Tyson's viewpoints a step too far, and the two came to blows over a discussion about ‘body counts’ when Tyson said: "I was in somewhat of a relationship [with a] beautiful girl. But unfortunately, she told me her body count history, like how many guys she'd slept with, and I think it was 78 or something crazy.
“That's too many for me. That's a lot of tallywhackers for me, quite frankly”. Despite being challenged on the topic by Steph, he doubled down on his points, saying his ideal body count for his partner would be ‘zero’ and claiming he wanted a ‘submissive partner’. Yikes.
Are Stephanie and Tyson still together after MAFS?
As you know, MAFS Australia is released earlier in Australia, so they're ahead of us in the drama. Warning: spoilers ahead that haven't aired in the UK.
So, the question that every MAFS fan is pondering… are Stephanie and Tyson still together? Surprising absolutely no one, the pair are in fact not still together. In the end, the couple's intense differences in opinion meant the relationship was doomed to fail and the couple went their separate ways. Tyson has since claimed his words were being twisted and swayed by the behind-the-scenes production on the show, saying he was influenced to use the word ‘submissive’.
They are our only hope in love at this point.
Despite all the stress of the show, Steph has revealed that she's since found love with someone in real life — a man named Aaron, who the estate agent has previously worked with: “I sold him a house when I was in the experiment, and then after I left we did the pre-settlement and inspection and met there, and have been dating ever since.” All's well that ends well, we suppose.
We can't wait to see how the rest of this season of MAFS Australia plays out for the other couples. Will Gia and Scott's matching tattoos tempt fate? Will Stella and Filip make it past filming? What happened between Bec and Rachel? Watch this space!
