MAFS star Daniel Holmes on Fight at First Sight, his TV experience and what the future holds

For anyone that watched the latest season of Married at First Sight (MAFS) there would be no doubt that Daniel Holmes was a figure shrouded in controversy but the 30-year-old says despite his portrayal on the show, he’s a good guy trying to focus on the important things in life.

Sitting down with NewsCop, Daniel spoke of his experiences on the famed reality TV show, what projects he’s got in the pipeline and the upcoming ‘Fight at First Sight’.

On October 15, Daniel goes face-to-face with rival and fellow MAFS star Brent Vitiello for Team Ellis’ ‘Fight at First Sight’ which will see the two take their beef into the boxing ring.

He’s been busy training twice a day with Justin “Iceman” Frost, who is a 3x Australian champion.

NewsCop: How is the fight prep going and how is training with Justin Frost?

DH: Prep is going good, training twice a day and doing everything I can to get the win and I know I’m being trained by the best.

NewsCop: How did you meet him?

DH: Well I moved up here [ to Brisbane] following a break up and I needed a good coach quick and I asked around if anyone had any recommendations and a friend that I trust recommended Frosty and I just slid in his DMs.

NewsCop: How are you feeling about everything going into Fight at First Sight?

DH: Well definitely nervous, it’s pretty intense having a fight, it is serious.

It’ll be the first one [I’ve had], so yeah it’s a serious thing having a fight but I’m doing everything I can to be prepared.

NewsCop: You’re up against Brent, what are your feelings about Brent and are you glad it’s him?

DH: Yes, I’m not a huge fan [of him] but I know he really dislikes me. I don’t think it’s smart to dislike anyone cause it gets in the way of your emotions too much, so it’s not a good idea for him to dislike me.

NewsCop: We saw that Mitch wanted to fight you but he’s a pro isn’t he?

DH: Yeah he’s had a ton of experience and I’m sort of friends with him now. We’ve hung out and stuff. We’re chill.

Although it’s been a while since the show was aired, Daniel says there have been lasting effects on his life and that the experience was nothing like he expected. He went on to the show to find love and instead found himself branded “the cheater” and “villain” on one of Australia’s most watched TV programs.

His relationship with Carolina was the centre point of drama for much of the show and behind the scenes it wasn’t made any easier by the showrunners he says.

NewsCop: Was the MAFS experience what you expected, now that you’re out of it and can look back?

DH: No it’s different, it’s more scripted and more manipulated.

NewsCop: How much control do producers, writers and the people involved in production have?

DH: Everything! Because you go in there thinking ‘I’m a good guy and I’ll be a good guy’ and the public will see that, but you don’t have a choice in who they decide you are.

The way they edit it, they choose characters and especially for my narrative they wanted to paint me as a cheater, so I didn’t really have much of a choice in which they decide to display my character.

NewsCop: Basically, you’re giving away your image for them to manipulate it in the way they want.

DH: Yeah. So when you sign up, you have to sign the papers going ‘I could be anything in this, I could be a good guy, a bad guy, a cheater’.

NewsCop: At first did you think you were going to be the good guy?

DH: Yeah. I thought I never spoke badly about anyone.

I knew there was going to be backlash [from the relationship with Carolina] because I knew they were going to paint it as a cheating scandal even though it wasn’t.

Even though the producers in my ears are going ‘you’re doing great, the public are going to love you’, ‘you’re such a good guy’.

But meanwhile they’re behind the scenes [doing the opposite].

NewsCop: What about the experience mid-way through, when you realized they’re pushing your narrative this way, instead of showing you for who you really are?

DH: I was kind of just like ‘stuff it, I’m going to do me’.

The part where Carolina and I started to get together, pretty much from the get-go we wanted to come clean about it, but the producers literally wouldn’t let us.

They physically at one point, locked her in a room because I was like ‘no, we’re going to go and tell everyone’.

So by that point I was like ‘oh I see what they’re trying to do, they’re trying to make this as bad as possible for us and they don’t want us to come clean about it’ because it’s going to make us look good, essentially.

By that point, I was like ‘what’s the worst that could happen’… 10 million abusive DMs later.

NewsCop: How bad did the abusive messages get?

DH: Oh I still get them. I wake up and [there are message that say] ‘I hope you die of cancer’, people are just crazy, people are insane.

The thing is, because it got painted as a cheating scandal, people believe it or a portion do and I’m like how is it cheating?

It’s 1- not a real relationship and 2- we never even kissed our partners, let alone held hands with them but people are like ‘nope that’s cheating’.

NewsCop: What about the friendships/relationships you formed on the show?

DH: I’m relatively okay with most of the guys.

It takes a long time to build a friendship, I’ve found, so I am cautious with the friendships.

I keep it relatively not too deep. It takes time.

NewsCop: We know that you just broke up with Carolina, is everything all good there?

DH: Yeah everything is on good terms.