In a statement released shortly after BBC News broke the story on Monday, Channel 4 said it had commissioned an external review of welfare on the show last month “after being presented with serious allegations of wrongdoing”.
Lawyers for CPL, an independent production company which makes the UK version of the show, said its welfare system was “gold standard” and industry-leading, and that it had acted appropriately in all these cases.
Channel 4’s chief executive Priya Dogra expressed sympathy to contributors who had “clearly been distressed after taking part in Married at First Sight”.
She said the allegations were disputed by those accused, adding that she believed the broadcaster had “acted quickly, appropriately, sensitively and with well-being front and centre” when concerns were raised.
However, when asked by a reporter if she wanted to apologise to the women involved, she declined to comment and walked off back into Channel 4’s London headquarters.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said he was “extremely concerned” about the allegations raised in the BBC investigation and called on Channel 4 and CPL to fully investigate them.
“I would also say given the very serious nature of these allegations, I think it’s highly likely that there will be a referral to the police and it will be a police matter for them to investigate,” he added.
Alex Mahon, who was chief executive of Channel 4 from 2017 to 2025, is due to face questions from MPs in a pre-scheduled meeting of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday.
The chair of the committee, Caroline Dinenage, told BBC News that MAFS UK did “involve an element of risk” as a show.
“It’s a TV show that almost expects and anticipates people that have only just met will have to become really quite intimate with each other,” she said.
“They’re expected to share a bed and a life together within minutes of meeting – it almost feels like an accident waiting to happen.”
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that MAFS needed to have made sure protections were in place before, during and after filming because the women in the Panorama documentary “didn’t realise fully what had happened to them until afterwards”.
Billed as a “bold social experiment”, MAFS sees single people agree to “marry” total strangers, after meeting for the first time at their mock weddings.