Channel 4 cancels Married at First Sight UK after welfare review

Channel 4 has cancelled Married at First Sight UK after 10 years, following an independent investigation into the programme’s handling of contestant welfare.

The broadcaster confirmed today (5 November) that the show would not return, with its budget redirected towards commissioning new programmes.

It follows serious allegations made by three former participants in a BBC Panorama investigation. Two women alleged they were raped by their on-screen husbands, while a third alleged sexual misconduct. The men concerned have denied the allegations, which were not examined as part of the broadcaster’s external review and remain with the relevant authorities.

What did the Married at First Sight UK review find?

Channel 4 chief executive Priya Dogra commissioned two separate reviews in April. Law firm Clyde & Co examined the welfare procedures in place when the allegations were raised and how Channel 4 and production company CPL Productions responded.

The firm reviewed 31,172 documents and 20 hours of broadcast and unaired footage. It concluded that the companies’ welfare protocols complied with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code and found no breach of the Code in their handling of the complaints.

However, the investigation identified isolated instances in which the welfare framework had not been fully implemented. It also recommended a more structured review across multiple series and improvements to existing safeguards.

A separate assessment by former BBC One Controller Lorraine Heggessey considered changes that could strengthen protections for participants.

Her review described the programme’s safeguards as “extensive, extremely thorough and of a high standard from which other productions in the industry have learnt”.

It concluded that the series could continue with additional welfare measures and adjustments to its format.

Why is Married at First Sight UK ending?

Dogra said implementing the recommendations in full would require substantially greater intervention, monitoring and supervision, fundamentally changing the programme’s format.

She said: “Channel 4 has always thrived on reinvention and this is a moment to kickstart a new era of creative renewal, using the considerable budget to find the next generation of distinctive and disruptive British television.”

The decision also means the sixth series, which was already in production when the review began, will not be broadcast. Second Married at First Sight, a planned spin-off that had entered pre-production, has also been scrapped.

Dogra said she was “very sorry for the distress those women have clearly felt”, adding that the broadcaster intended to share the review’s findings with other broadcasters to support improvements to welfare standards across reality television.

Channel 4 had previously removed earlier series of Married at First Sight UK from its streaming and broadcast platforms while the review was underway.

Married at First Sight UK‘s LGBTQ+ history

The show introduced its first same-sex male couple, Matt Jameson and Daniel McKee, in 2021. The pair stayed together for around two years before splitting. In 2022, Jenna Robinson and Zoe Clifton became the show’s first lesbian couple. The pair got engaged in June 2024 and have since married.

Its 2025 series featured four LGBTQ+ contestants across two same-sex pairings: Davide Anica and Keye-Luke Tortice-Lunn, who split after the experiment, and Leah Marie Tyrer and Leigh Harris, who ended their relationship at the final vows.