Married At First sight 's Jenna Robinson has shed new light on her blossoming friendship with co-star Thomas Hartley - before their ugly fallout.
Relations between the pals appears to have severed beyond repair after Thomas made vile comments about Jenna's dad, who died during the Covid pandemic, in a recent interview.
Following a huge backlash, Thomas' guest appearance on the What's Happening podcast was eventually taken down with the Liverpudlian going on to issue a grovelling apology to Jenna for the attack.
In an awkwardly timed interview, Jenna has now spoken about about her closeness to Thomas, revealing that she and her partner Zoe enjoyed a couples night out with the former mental health nurse and his now ex-'husband' Adrian before things took a hostile turn.
According to Jenna, the group were one of a few to stay close after the Channel 4 show ended and had enjoyed a night out in Manchester together as a foursome.
Speaking about who she and Zoe keep in touch with, Jenna said: "To be honest, we have conversations with everyone apart from Whitney [Hughes] and Matt [Muray]. Whitney's blocked us, she's blocked a load of other people – think she's blocked half the crew as well. I see Chanita [Stephenson] all the time, at least once every two weeks because we live 45 minutes from each other. Jordan [Emmett-Connelly] and I went to Ibiza together. Jenna's been to events, too.
" We had a night out in Manchester the other week, too, with Adrian and Thomas," Jenna told OK! magazine.
The interview came before Thomas' now infamous appearance on the What's Happening podcast.
During his chat, Thomas was typically outspoken and seized the opportunity to cack jokes about his co-stars.
In one clip, Thomas discussed Jenna choosing to walk down the aisle herself.
A number of jokes, which the Mirror has decided not to repeat are heard, before Thomas tells the hosts: “I’m getting f**king cancelled, aren’t I?”
He adds of Jenna: “But honestly, she [Jenna] is a nice person, she really is.”
Jenna’s wife Zoe immediately hit out on Instagram as she shared a clip from the interview, writing: “You disrespectful piece of s**t.”
Thomas has since issued an apology and says he has asked for the offensive podcast to be taken down. He said: “I sincerely apologise for any offence I caused on the podcast. It wasn’t right and I did ask for it to be removed and it wasn’t.
"I take full responsibility and honestly completely regret the situation and what I said. I am honestly so sorry for any pain caused to anyone... There’s no excuse. I was out of order massively. I will live eternally with regret.”
In later posts on Instagram, he apologised again as he revealed he was having some “very dark thoughts”. He said: "I think it’s important to start by saying this podcast is about dark comedy and it’s safe to say after the reaction from people, death threats, accusations and the band wagoning, it’s safe to say I’ve had some very dark thoughts.
“I have already apologised, but the damage is done and for those personally affected by the podcast, I am extremely sorry. The lines between comedy and insensitivity were massively blurred. I was genuinely too comfortable and said the complete wrong thing.
“To the trolls, those threatening my family and friends, you should be ashamed of yourselves. I’m taking a break from social media for a few days.”
