MAFS Groom Danny Hewitt Breaks Silence on 'Finger Bang' Retreat Fallout
Married At First Sight groom Danny Hewitt has claimed he was the most severely impacted participant following his TV wife Bec Zacharia's infamous crude 'finger bang' comments, which ignited chaos during the couples' retreat. In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail, the 34-year-old admitted that reliving the drama on screen proved to be an intensely difficult experience.
'It was stressful to be fair… stressful, a bit triggering,' Danny confessed. 'Bit of PTSD, you know what I mean? I probably should've just not watched it and gone to the pub instead.'
The Nuclear Bomb Joke That Shattered the Peace
Danny found himself thrust into the centre of the retreat turmoil after Bec Zacharia's notorious remark detonated one of the season's most uncomfortable moments. While the comment sparked outrage from fellow bride Rachel Gilmore and sharply divided the group, Danny insisted there was absolutely no malicious intent behind the ill-fated joke.
'You've got to be able to read a room,' he acknowledged. 'We know Rachel's sensitive. If you cracked that joke about me, I couldn't care less. But Rachel is sensitive, so Bec probably should have read the room a little bit better. With that being said, it was a joke. There was no malice meant in the joke.'
According to Danny, the explosive comment came during what had been, until that point, the most positive and harmonious night of the entire experiment.
'That night had been the best night in our season's history,' he recalled. 'There had been no arguing, everyone had got along, we'd had pizza, we were at the retreat. It was unbelievable. Production asked Bec to finish the night with a speech. She cracked a few jokes in there about a few people and they all landed. And then the last joke at the end… boom. It was a nuclear bomb.'
The Decision to Flee the Retreat
As tensions rapidly escalated in the aftermath of the fallout, Danny made the decisive call to remove both himself and Bec from the retreat environment entirely.
'That was my idea,' he revealed. 'I'd had enough of all the bulls**t, so I was just like, 'Let's get out of here.' So we just pulled a bear move and we bounced.'
The pair temporarily exited the experiment and were subsequently checked into a hotel away from the rest of the cast. 'Just get away for a few days, recharge the batteries,' he explained. 'It was good to do it.'
Despite this dramatic exit, Danny insisted he entered the subsequent dinner party with no elaborate strategy. 'With MAFS you can't have a game plan,' he stated. 'You've just got to see how things play out and adjust on the fly.'
A Lose-Lose Situation and Behind-the-Scenes Tensions
Danny admitted the retreat placed him in what he described as the worst position of anyone involved in the experiment.
'I'm damned if I do, I'm damned if I don't,' he said. 'If I don't stick up for Bec I'd be called a s*** husband. But when I do stick up for her, she's not always in the right. I just had to pick which loss I wanted to take.'
He revealed that significant tensions had already been simmering behind the scenes long before the retreat incident erupted. 'There had been so much stuff behind the scenes. I told Bec I wanted her to be ride or die for me,' he shared. 'So when this all went down, I said, "I guess this is my time to prove that."'
Danny also conceded that watching the episode back left him questioning some of his in-the-moment decisions. 'When you watch it back you think, "Why didn't I say this? Why didn't I do that?"' he reflected. 'But when you're living it in the moment, you make mistakes. We're only human.'
The Collapse of a Friendship and a Blunt Verdict on Gia
The retreat drama also triggered the complete collapse of Danny's friendship with fellow groom Scott McCristal. However, Danny insisted the two men handled their confrontation with far more calm than the chaos unfolding between the brides.
'My plan was just to speak to Scott and say let's all be civil,' he explained. 'But Scott basically said he'd be civil with me but he wasn't going to acknowledge Bec. I just said, "What kind of man would I be if I let you ignore my wife?" So I said it's either both of us or nothing.'
Danny says the two ultimately parted ways respectfully. 'We dealt with it like gentlemen. We shook hands and walked away. I was proud of how we handled it,' he recalled.
Danny did not hold back, however, when asked about Scott's TV wife, Gia Fleur, accusing her of masterful manipulation during the retreat.
'Gia is so manipulative. She's very intelligent and very manipulative in that regard,' he asserted. 'She could walk into a room where everyone hates her and two hours later be the most loved woman in the room. It's actually quite remarkable.'
Danny believes Gia deliberately inserted herself into other people's conflicts. 'She's playing the game. You actually have to see it to believe it,' he said. In fact, Danny joked that if Gia and Bec ever formed an alliance, they would become an unstoppable force. 'If those two were friends they could take over the world,' he laughed. 'Can you imagine going up against Bec and Gia? No thanks.'
Why an Apology Will Never Come
The groom also addressed the upcoming dinner party moment where Gia is expected to demand an apology from him. Danny was unequivocal that such an apology will never be forthcoming.
'No,' he stated bluntly. 'Because she doesn't deserve one.' Danny insisted he never directly labelled Gia a liar. 'All I said was, 'Let's be careful who we call a liar,' he clarified. However, he did not shy away from sharing his personal opinion. 'She does lie. You're going to see that moving forward,' he added.
Danny also expressed disappointment at seeing Gia launch a new romance with Love Triangle star Alan Wallace while her relationship with Scott continued to play out on screens. 'It's not fair on Scott. They had a great storyline and now it's blown up,' he said.
Nevertheless, Danny insisted he harbours no personal hatred. 'I don't hate Gia. I don't feel anything towards her. I just don't care. I wish her all the best,' he concluded.
