MAFS Australia best man Ben defends his controversial speech at Tim and Sara's wedding
26 February 2024, 21:00
Married At First Sight Australia viewers were left outraged as Ben delivered one of the most memorable speeches as Tim's wedding to Sara.
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MAFS Australia's best man Ben, who delivered a graphic speech at Tim and Sara's wedding, has now defended himself over the words which were branded "derogatory" and "disgusting" by the bridesmaids.
Sara, 29, and Tim, 31, has an instant connection when they met for the first time on their wedding day on Married At First Sight, however, the reception quickly soured things between the pair when Tim's admission he was going to propose to his ex-girlfriend was followed by one of the most controversial best man speeches of all time.
Ben, Tim's best man, appeared confident as he stood up in front of a bunch of strangers and began his speech with: "I was not surprised to hear that Tim was partaking in this experiment, because Tim is a man of science. He's quite fond of experimentation."
That's where the speech went downhill for Ben, however, as he went on to reference many graphic 'experiments' Tim has done in his lifetime - so crude in fact we won't be able to write them in this article.
On the day of the wedding, Sara's friends told the cameras his comments during the speech were "disgusting" and "derogatory", a reaction many viewers had as they watched the episode.
Ben, however, has since defended his best man speech, claiming that the way it was edited for MAFS made it appear worse.
Speaking on the So Dramatic! Podcast, Ben said: "Everyone clapped and cried. And Sara was [even] tearing up because it was so heartfelt."
While he admitted he did "have his beer goggles on," he says he saw lots of laughter from the guests during the speech, adding: "I thought people really enjoyed it, and there was definitely applause, which we didn’t hear [in the final edit].”
Ben went on to claim that he had sent a version of the speech to Tim prior to the weeding, and that the MAFS producers also gave the green light to it.
“When [the crude jokes] are sandwiched between the more heartfelt moments, it doesn’t feel so jaw-dropping," Ben said: "I didn’t wish to have offended people; I’d hope to have entertained… I put blood, sweat and tears into that speech.”
Tim's best man also said on the podcast that the bridesmaids, who branded the speech "inappropriate" during the episode, were "kind of joking" with their critics of the words.
“They were like: ‘We just got interviewed, and we threw you under the bus…We were playing good cop, bad cop," Ben said.
He added: “The speech actually finished on quite a touching note. I don’t think it was perceived by many as a bad speech. And the wedding continued on with laughter and joy and dancing.”
