{"id":393217,"date":"2026-01-05T13:50:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T13:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393217\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T13:50:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T13:50:28","slug":"cricket-presenter-ankita-karungalekar-reveals-what-her-married-at-first-sight-saga-really-cost-her-after-she-was-kicked-off-the-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393217\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket presenter Ankita Karungalekar reveals what her Married At First Sight saga really cost her after she was kicked off the show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ankita Karungalekar has revealed the shocking amount of money she lost after appearing on Married At First Sight (MAFS).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cricket presenter’s reality TV journey was cut short after allegations surfaced regarding her onscreen husband Micah Lomu.<\/p>\n

Now, she has estimated that her brief stint on the 2026 season cost her at least $6,000.<\/p>\n

\"Queen<\/p>\n

“I was out of work after that for [about] a month… no pay for that,” she confessed to Chattr regarding her time on the reality series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Karungalekar went on to say that she received no money for the outfits she bought or the expenses she incurred during the experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I didn’t get paid for anything at all, no compensation, no sort of apology or anything as such.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think I invested around $6,000 to $10,000 with this whole process… The food, the investment [in] clothing, just the suitcases.”<\/p>\n

Karungalekar’s bold admission comes after it was revealed that she and her onscreen husband were asked to leave the show.<\/p>\n

The couple, who exited the series before the first dinner party took place, broke their silence on the controversy in an interview with Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

Rumours regarding Lomu first circulated on TikTok last year, prompting an internal investigation into the budding star.<\/p>\n

According to the finance broker, no physical evidence was found to back up the claims.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Producers] told me it was in my best interest to be dismissed from the show for my mental health,\u201d Lomu told the publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut by doing that, they practically gave validation that I\u2019d done something wrong, there was no visual proof, no history of wrongdoing, nothing. I was painted as someone to be scared of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karungalekar chimed in with her onscreen partner, adding that the decision to have them axed from the show left the couple shocked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were floored that Channel Nine made such a huge decision based on TikTok videos without receipts,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

The thirteenth season of Married At First Sight is set to hit Aussie sceens in February this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Promising to be “the greatest season of them all” in one of the promotional trailers,<\/a> the much-anticipated dating show has already been making headlines thanks to its wild cast and dramatic plotlines.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ankita Karungalekar has revealed the shocking amount of money she lost after appearing on Married At First Sight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[210339,64,63,134,37689,108353,210338,11252,20604,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-393217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-ankita-karungalekar","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-mafs","13":"tag-married-at-first-sight","14":"tag-micah-lomu","15":"tag-reality-tv","16":"tag-reality-tv-star","17":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}