'I got really stitched up'

Given that she had made a pinky promise with Dean just hours earlier to leave their partners for one another, it was fair to say Davina was blindsided when Dean did a backflip and decided to stay with his partner Tracey.

“Things definitely didn’t turn out the way I thought,” Davina said, who was forced to stay in the experiment for another week as her unsuspecting partner Ryan wrote “Stay”. “You think you know someone and you really don’t,” she wept. “He honestly made me feel safe. … But I got really stitched up.” 

“Do you think what you’ve done is inappropriate?” challenged expert John Aiken. Davina sat next to husband Ryan as she explained she didn’t feel it was wrong but instead, she had enjoyed feeling “nice things”.

“If it’s appropriate, why do you think the group’s so outraged?” responded John.

“It would have been horrendous for both parties,” Davina said. “But at the end of the day, I’m here for me.” 

“I was so disheartened at the beginning … Ryan and I just know that it’s not really going anywhere … The fact that I saw a glimmer with someone like Dean, I was ready to pursue that because I came here for love.”

“I feel like an idiot because I thought that potentially maybe Dean was my real match,” she said, choking back tears. “I did think that it was a genuine connection, but I was very wrong.”

Explaining she loved Ryan “as a friend”, Davina sheepishly held up her “Leave” card.

“I thought things were right on,” Ryan said. “In the real world you don’t just meet someone at Woolies, go on a date with them and marry them that day. It just doesn’t work that way. You do start off as friends … toughing it out is part of the process. If shit hits the fan you sorta try and stick it out for a bit … If I’d known, I would have written “Leave”. I’ve got seven more days of being with someone that was going to trade me for someone else.”

“I just can’t get it right,” sighed Davina.