“He’d see her behaviour and then fall backwards.”

Former Married at First Sight (MAFS) groom Sam Stanton has come out sounding rather sympathetic of Danny Hewitt after the Brit was seen boasting about being able to find a “better bird” at Coles.

“It’s not anybody’s fault and nobody’s worse in that situation,” Sam said to Daily Mail reporter Ali Daher in an on-camera interview. “I just think that they were both dealing with really complex emotions and feelings. So it’s really tough to navigate yourself in those situations.”

At times, Sam also positioned Danny as a victim, stating: “I think Danny really struggled with Bec at the Dinner Parties, like her behaviour there, and it really put him on the back foot every single time. You know he probably built up his attraction and feelings for her every week and then [he’d] see her behaviour and then fall backwards.”

Sam’s comment will likely come as a surprise after MAFS: After The Reunion dropped unseen footage of Danny saying to camera, “You’re telling me that’s the best you could bring me?” presumably in reference to Bec. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, MAFS dude… I can f**king walk in Coles and get a better bird than that, f**k me,” he said, at one point declaring, “bring me better women!”

While the footage has sent shockwaves through MAFS audiences, many point out that Danny has been making problematic statements about women from the beginning — for example, when he quipped “b**ches all love me” in reference to Bec’s dog, and that moving into a woman’s house would make him him “feel like a b*tch.”

Sam admits that Danny stayed on MAFS for too long

To be fair, Sam did say that Danny likely knew that Bec wasn’t right for him early in the experiment, and hung around a little too long. “I think maybe in my honest opinion he pushed it a bit further than he should’ve.”

” I think it was probably a couple of weeks [in] that he realised that maybe it wasn’t going to work, but i think at that point he thought maybe i’ll just ride it to the end because we’re that close anyway,” the 34-year-old said.

Responding to the unseen footage while on the couch at MAFS: After The Reunion, Bec said: “Who do you think you are? This is why I say he’s come on for fame… if that’s how you feel about me, why did you sit there for three months straight?”