Former MAFS brides Domenica Calarco and Ella Ding reconcile two years after friendship blow up: ‘Worse than a break-up’
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After years of frostiness, Married At First Sight’s Domenica Calarco and Ella Ding have reunited to discuss the public fallout of their friendship.
The duo, who became best friends after meeting on MAFS season 9, appeared on Ella’s The Ella Era podcast, more than two years after their relationship publicly broke down following a controversial interview with polarising 2024 groom Jack Dunkley.
Ella and Dom reunited more than two years after ending their friendship. Instagram/@domenica.calarco
It marked the first time they had spoken publicly in more than two years.
After years of intense friendship and being deeply intertwined in each other’s lives, Ella said losing her best friend made life feel “quiet”.
Dom agreed, explaining how odd it was to lose the person she was used to speaking to from the moment she woke up to the moment she went to sleep.
“When you’re in your 20s and 30s and losing a friend, it’s literally worse than a break-up with a man,” she said.
Speaking about the interview, both women agreed that while they didn’t regret doing the interview with Jack, they wished they had asked different questions and gone about it differently.
Dom said after the backlash began, sponsors pulled out, they lost $250,000, and it led to the abrupt end of their Sit With Us podcast.
“People saw this as internet drama, but at the end of the day behind that were two women figuring it out,” she said.
Around the same time, Dom was struggling with other issues, including a devastating break-up, and voluntarily entered a mental health facility.
“Dealing with that, then dealing with a f---ing literal nervous breakdown, the breakdown of our friendship, the breakdown of a career, I actually don’t know how I survived it and got through,” she said.
Dom and Ella reflected on all the incredible things they did together, including attending the Logies and filming MAFS recaps. Instagram
Two years on, Dom said reconnecting had been “one of the greatest things other than the birth of my daughter”.
She mourned the fact that being pregnant and becoming mothers together was “taken away from us”, after the duo each welcomed their daughters, Dove and Pia, within three months of each other.
Dom first hinted they had reunited with a photo of their babies, Pia and Dove, in June. Instagram/@domenica.calarco
“It’s so sad, but it’s also so beautiful,” Dom said. “If that didn’t happen, I don’t think we’d be where we are, and I think we are right where we need to be.”
The duo will further discuss learning of each other’s pregnancies and reconnecting in a part two, which drops on Thursday.
