“I Definitely Would Have Made Different Decisions” MAFS’ Paige Talks Chris Not Finding Her Attractive, Objectifying Comments & More

This season of “Married at First Sight” has proven to be drastically different than anything we’ve ever seen before. Rarely does drama this intense begin from the first couple of episodes. But the match between Chris and Paige has left us with more than a few things to discuss and ponder. We all have our theories and speculations. Still, it’s usually better to get information directly from the source. And while Paige can’t tell her what the end’s going to be, we were happy to see what she had to say regarding the first few episodes of her season. 

See what she had to say about Chris, his daddy, the whole sex thing and why she was (and maybe still is) hopeful for her marriage at the end of this week’s episode. 

MadameNoire: How has it been seeing yourself on television? How have you adjusted to that change?­­­

Paige: It is definitely surreal. I always told myself I would never get myself caught up in something like this and then I get on a whole show that is documenting my love story. It’s a unique experience and I’m grateful for the opportunity because I’ve always wanted to be married—like I said in my introduction. This is something that’s always been a desire for me.

But yeah, it’s kind of crazy to actually relive some of these moments. It feels like it was yesterday.

MadameNoire: Tell me what you thought on the night of your wedding, before your reception, when Chris was telling you that he had been engaged? Did you doubt he was ready for the process? How did that revelation make you feel?

Paige: I mean, to be honest, when he told me that it definitely struck a chord with me because in my mind, I’m like has this chapter really been closed? It’s not the fact that he was engaged before because we have someone who is a former divorcee as well. But it was the timeline. Because it was so soon, that was what was unnerving to me. The desire of him wanting to be married is awesome. And clearly he had intentions to marry this woman but for whatever reason it didn’t work out. The concern came up for me when he was saying that time he had broken up with his previous situation and got into this marriage was so recent.

MadameNoire: You said it was a yellow flag. People online are like, that is a red flag!

Paige: Well yeah! Think about it in my perspective. At that point, I was looking at it from a bigger lens. I know that I came into this to be married and wanting to be committed to this process. So for someone who had gotten out of an engagement and to still have the desire to be married, it just kind of put the thought into my head, ‘Ok, you still want to be married though.’ That desire is still there.

It didn’t work out and I didn’t want to pry at that point because it’s our wedding. I really don’t want to talk about that. The fact that he was transparent enough to bring that to the forefront, I could have respected him in that sense. And so that’s why I didn’t want to give it a red flag off the rip because I wanted to give him that benefit of the doubt to open up the dialogue on where his head is. In my mind, you came on this process wanting to find love and start a new journey.

MadameNoire: What did you think of your bridesmaids’ assessment of Chris, specifically the idea of him proving himself before you give your heart to him?

Paige: I think that they have shown extreme grace in these conditions. They had literally just met this man the exact same time I did. Going into the wedding, I let my family know this is an unorthodox situation for both parties. Let’s show grace and be compassionate because we don’t know these people. And I do want them to feel welcomed. So even though his commentary was distasteful, I feel like they were giving him ample amount of time to explain himself further. I think the bigger part of it is, it still was my wedding day and they wanted to be as respectful as possible and they didn’t want to dim my light because of everything that they heard.

Furthermore, I took their advice but Chris didn’t give me any direct indication that there was no interest until the following day. I think subtlety they were trying to give me that alley oop…

MadameNoire: …without ruining the day.

Paige: Exactly.

MadameNoire: What did you feel about the comments and the advice that Chris’ dad gave you on the wedding day. He said it in a flowery way but he was essentially talking about being sexually available for your husband.

Paige:  Yeeeaaah. I’m not going to lie, some of the conversations that were made with me and without me did make me feel a little uncomfortable. What’s more important is that when we had the conversation at brunch—kind of just holding Chris accountable—because his father was deeming his behavior as “gentleman-like.”

That was the triggering word for me. Like, ‘My son is a gentleman.’ …Oh, okay…

I think overall, his family means very well but some of the conversations that were had when I wasn’t present in the room made me a little uncomfortable than anything as it pertained to me and my body.

MadameNoire: Exactly. It made a lot of us uncomfortable to watch that, honestly. So then when you and Chris were having your first conflict, he was upset that you had talked to his parents about sex. But sex didn’t seem to be a taboo topic, given the way that the wedding and the reception was going. It seemed to be fair game.

Paige: Right! I was a little concerned. The night before, it was an open dialogue. I felt like it was a sense of community and there was a little bit of trust established that I could have this conversation with them. And then most importantly, these are the people that are closest to you that can actually vouch for your character. I just met you less than 24 hours ago. In my opinion, I wanted to be very upfront and forthcoming about how I was feeling and hopefully they could give me the best advice on how to carry this out. Because they know their son better than I do at this point.

MadameNoire: It’s funny my friend was texting me as she was watching it and she was like, ‘I wouldn’t have talked to his family about it.’ I said, ‘Girl, she’s confused. She needs answers from somebody!’

Paige: Yeah! I can’t talk to my husband about it.

MadameNoire: When Chris said that he wasn’t all the way attracted, from what we saw, you had a very poker face. How were you feeling as he gave you that news?

Paige: I think any woman would feel like, ‘Dang!’ You know? I was very disheartened because I’m married to you. You’re my husband. Obviously, any woman, especially on their wedding, want to feel desired, loved, appreciated and valued. And trust and believe, I already had a lot of insecurities going into the wedding. I didn’t like my look in general, already. So, I was already having things in the back of my head-insecurities. So for that to have been brought up later down the line, it really did hurt my feelings. I was distraught because of everything that had transpired the night before.

MadameNoire: When you say you didn’t like your look—what do you mean? Your makeup, your hair, your dress?

Paige: Oh yeah, everything! I was freaking out. I think what a lot of people fail to realize is because it’s such an expedited process, I didn’t get the proper—like things that I would have wanted. It was quick! I see a lot of commentary about certain things and I kind of laugh because it’s like, nobody is in our shoes unless you’re in our shoes. And if I’d had my ideal of a wedding things would have went totally different for me if I had more time to prepare.

MadameNoire: Did Chris’ comments make you regret the process or make you regret that you had done the night before?

Paige: If I could go back in time, I definitely would have made different decisions regarding what happened the night before and that morning, for sure.

MadameNoire: At the end of the episode, you and Chris seem to be in a good place. You seem very optimistic and hopeful about the union. What kept you in that headspace?

Paige: At this point, Chris and I had openly shared that we wanted to give the marriage a fair shot. And I think for me it was really important, as a wife who really wanted to be married, to put my all into this process and be invested and be committed. And so I’m just hoping since we got some of the more challenging conversations out of the way, that we’re able to focus on the why. Why did we match? Why did we get married? Why did we say these vows in front of God and our family and friends? I came into this process with the purest of intentions and I’m extremely hopeful that whoever I match with will put the same level of commitment into this process and most importantly into our marriage. And that’s where I’m hoping Chris and I will be. And it’s so much more to find out about each other. Yes, we had a rough start but this is just the beginning. And when you start to see someone, outside of the physical lens—I don’t think people really understand, we are this couple that have been very Christ conscious. No, we’re not perfect. Yes, things have been shared and said but at the end of the day, that has been one of the main pillars of why we were matched.

So once you step outside of this physical eye and you start to see someone on a more spiritual eye, I think things can definitely develop over time.

MadameNoire: Is there anything people are saying online that has been bothering you and that you would like to dispel?

Paige: No, I just want to say that I’m really grateful for the people who have been super supportive of me throughout this process. It’s not easy to go through this process in general, anybody who’s a participant, but most importantly my situation, which is extremely unique. When I’m watching the show, I’m trying to step outside of the situation and not be Paige. We can be very critical of people’s decisions and not fully understand everything that’s involved in it or why decisions are made. I’m grateful for the opportunity to speak on your platform to reassure people of some of the decisions I made as a woman.

I know people were like, ‘Why in the world would she sleep with a man that’s not attracted to her?’ I think that’s the key focus for me at this point, staying rooted and being grateful for those Team Paige supporters or whatever the case may be. It’s about being confident and bold in my own truth and understanding who I am and whose I am.