Exclusive Interview! Madison Myers Spills the Tea on Married at First Sight Season 18 [video]
Madison Myers Tells All: Behind the Scenes of MAFS Season 18
Okay, I have to admit, I'm still pinching myself! As a HUGE fan of Married at First Sight, I was glued to my screen watching Season 18 unfold. So, imagine my excitement when I got the chance to sit down and chat with the incredible Madison Myers right here in Chicago!
This exclusive interview happened as part of my LIVE WITH LIZ Podcast Series, hosted within our amazing VIP Group for Empowered Women of Chicago. It was such a thrill to bring Madison's story directly to our incredible community!
In our conversation, Madison spilled all the tea about her time on Married at First Sight. We talked about:
Behind-the-Scenes Drama: What really happened behind the scenes – the drama, the laughs, and the moments that didn't make it to air.
The emotional rollercoaster: Madison opened up about the emotional journey of marrying a stranger on TV (talk about intense!).
Life After the Show: We dove deep into her journey after being on the show – how she's grown, what she learned about herself, and her exciting next steps… and of course her current relationship!
But wait, it gets even better! Not only did I get to interview Madison for the podcast, but I was also lucky enough to welcome her into my very own Chicago Boudoir Photography studio, here in Winnetka, for a boudoir photography session!
Seeing her shine both in front of my camera and during our chat was such a privilege!
Madison was so candid, raw, and absolutely lovely to chat with. Getting to connect with her, both as a fan of the show and now as someone who's worked with her, and sharing it with the VIP Group for Empowered Women of Chicago was truly special.
You don’t want to miss this one! Watch my full interview with Madison HERE!
Interview Auto-Generated Transcript:
hello hello i'm Liz Hansen from the Chicago Boudoir Photography studio and this is Live with Liz and I am so
excited today to talk with Madison Meyers here from season 18 of Married at
First Sight madison welcome thank you i'm so happy to be here it's been a
while since you and I actually got to chitchat for a while so I'm really looking forward to it guys if you're
watching this live feel free to drop any questions or comments um Madison we are just so glad that you are here this
season this series Live with Liz I bring in women from the Chicago area who are
making a difference and Madison we are just so so grateful to talk to you today if you haven't seen the show Madison
went on national TV and married a stranger and then you see their the
first eight weeks of their marriage and she's there with several other couples and at the end they all have to decide
if they're going to stay married or get divorced if you haven't seen the show you need to go see it season 18 Married
at First Sight so Madison zero stars it was the worst experience of your life
five stars it was the best experience of your life how many stars do you give being on a reality show Marrying a
Stranger Married at First Sight season 18 so I'm gonna probably have to give
it I'm gonna give it like a 4.2 only because I think I think the whole experience being on reality TV is a lot
i mean it's way different than I think anybody would ever expect um I don't really know what I was getting myself into when I first went into it um but I
did come out of it finding the love of my life so I think that definitely pushes the scale much higher i'd give
that a five five stars hands down um yeah i love the the specificity of 4.2
that's amazing how did you Good average okay you probably knew like you said
going on a reality show is a lot your words you probably knew going into it that this was going to be a little bit
of a pressure cooker how did you What made you want to do this what made you decide to do this even though you knew
it might be kind of hard yeah so I think most people have probably at least watched one reality TV show or not
whether it's Married at First Sight Love is Blind The Bachelor anything and you know we all have our own opinions about
it but I hadn't actually seen too many episodes of Married at First Sight i knew the concept of it um and they had
reached out to me actually on Instagram when they were initially casting and they were like "Hey you know we are
casting for the Chicago season of Married at First Sight we think you'd be a great candidate." So I sent it to my girlfriends and I was like "Hey look at
this like what what's it about?" And one of my girlfriends is a huge watcher of Married at First Sight and as am I by
the way full disclosure off the show and she was like "It's a legit show you
know they really try to match people based off of what's really going to work out for people in the long run." And you
know dating is a dumpster fire anywhere you go especially these days with a digital you know dating apps they're
terrible so I thought you know why not just give it a shot you know what's what's the worst that could happen you
know I go on the show and I don't find somebody or you know I I go on it and I ended up with the love of my life which
is what happened so kind of a crazy crazy story this is so incredible and spoiler alert Madison you're still with
David i am i am but David is not the man that you the stranger that you married
at the altar so spoiler alert for those who haven't watched the season yeah okay so I want
to ask some questions about being on the show so um in terms of like as a woman I
feel like if I was going to be on TV I would be worried about my hair and makeup i'd be worried about my outfits i
like you have to go and do a whole wedding day with your in a wedding dress tell me a little bit do they help you
with this do they give you guidance do they tell you what to wear do they have someone back there doing your hair you look beautiful on the show by the way
thank you um so for the wedding day they do have hair and makeup which was great um but for the rest of the show you're
on your own so um I actually got a clothing membership for from Fashion
Pass so highly recommend it for any ladies who are looking just for to reup your wardrobe whether it's you know work
outfits dresses casual whatever um it's basically you pay a monthly fee and then
you get five articles of clothing and that was really helpful since we were filming so much um but then you want to
wear the same outfit every Exactly and it's like brighter colors look better on camera so it's like we were always
trying to find you know like hot pinks or oranges whatever um so that that was
what made my wardrobe a lot easier but in terms of like hair and makeup it was all um all on me but it's crazy people
you know the internet is a wild place um and I will say you know it's a very humbling place as well i've I've chosen
to stay off of a lot of the comments of people will will poke at you know physical traits about everybody so bad
it's like you have one bad hair day or you know you have something in your tooth and the world will not let you
hear the end of it i'm like "Okay guys i get it my hair extensions were a little bit long on some of this season i won't
make that mistake again." Okay but on that same okay continuing on
there the I have seen a lot of vitrial on the internet towards you and David
and h like a lot of people saying stuff that's not even true a lot of people making conjectures about you what has
that kind of like from the internet been like i mean you said you're staying off but I'm sure
you've seen some of it what has that been like for you like emotionally you're a real person you and David have
a real relationship and then suddenly the internet has all these opinions about your hair and you and David and
everything what has that been like for you yeah I mean I'm definitely in therapy we both are um so that highly
recommend um I started it when the show was airing which definitely has helped me for sure um but it is crazy i mean I
definitely stay off of a lot of the Facebook pages obviously I have my own personal Instagram account which I
recently made public and you know the influx of love on our personal accounts has been a lot more which has been super
great like we really appreciate the people who have supported us and really see the true love connection between David and I um but for the other people
who are just so mean it's like it's hard like words are hurtful and it's even
though they're strangers you know the things that people say I'm like you know what i'm sure you're not all that in a
bag of chips either Lisa all right like god damn so I think I think it's just a matter of
really trying to focus on ourselves and just knowing that the hate and hurtfulness that people have it's more
of a reflection on them and it's they've got more things that they need to work on than we do and now that we are more
in the public eye it's just something that we've had to adjust to more because before we were just living our own
normal lives and you don't hear people criticizing how you look or you know what you wear or how your hair looks or
what type of person you are i mean we've even had people ask us on Instagram "We we heard that you and David broke up we
hope that's not true." I'm like "No it's not true don't listen to everything you see on the internet i promise it's all
fake news." What has surprised me is the volume of
commentary directed at you um because unlike you I have not stayed off some of
these boards because I went to kind of just see what the chatter was and it's just like the amount of time and energy
that some people are willing to put into like like you said making comments about your looks or one phrase you said on the
show or whatever it's it's it's a lot Madison like it's a lot has that affected your friends and family your
employer your circles kind of outside you and David honestly we kind of laugh about it to be
honest i mean I've done a lot of work on myself to not let bullies get to me and that's
exactly what they are they're cyber bullies you know I've dealt with them my whole life and yeah I didn't handle
things 100% correct on the show nobody did no one can can sit here and say that they did everything perfectly but they
also only got to see snippets of the show and only got to see what the producers wanted them to see and so if
someone wants to say that you know I look like a man or my shoulders are too broad I encourage you to go to the gym
you know maybe maybe maybe do something better with your life than just comment on what somebody looks
like so I choose to take those comments and use them as my power because you
know what if you want if you want to keep me relevant keep talking about me whether it's good or it's bad I'm going to use it to my advantage and the people
that love me and support me are going to do the same um I think where it really gets more intense is we have
received you know some personal death threats actually um oh my word yeah so
that that was something that to me is crossing the line um where I'm like you don't even know who I am it's involving
my family and involving my friends and so to me it's just it is crazy what type
of people are actually out in the world and you know anytime I do an interview like this you know people like "Oh Madison's so calculated she says this
and that." And I'm like "I'm just a normal human i went on a TV show to find love." It didn't go the way that I
thought it would go i make mistakes everybody makes mistakes and it's how you come out of them and grow from those
mistakes that makes the difference of you know which path you're going to take in life so you know David and I are
choosing to see the positivity and focus on those who support us and you know see what see what love is that we have i've
thought so many times like what if my dating life had been on national TV like
there would have been some commentary on my choices you know it's like people are so quick to judge you you I feel like on
the internet but like what if the cameras were turned on you and your dating life like can you even imagine like um what that would be like you know
and I can't imagine what it has been like for you what do you say for example to internet people who think that you
should have not chosen David like there is there's a whole contingent of people who are like I can't believe you're
dating him what do you say to them i know you were it's easy to to clap back
on people who get you down on your looks your beautiful broad shoulders by the way but what do you say to people who
are like "Madison David's not the man for you because you guys are together and you are happy." What do you say to them i would say people surprise you
every day and maybe David wasn't my perfect person on paper and and maybe he was you know I would say that
everybody's relationship is their own and to just mind your own business and and if we're happy just be happy for us
i don't I don't know why people have so many opinions on who should be with who and dating is hard enough as it is with
social media and the internet like and other people's opinions i don't care
what other people say you know people always like they're like "Oh David doesn't pay any bills you know he's
riding on Madison's coattails and she's the bread winner." I'm like he makes one comment about me being the bread winner
which by the way just means that I happen to make a little bit more money than him it doesn't mean he doesn't work doesn't mean he doesn't pay for anything
so for me I just encourage those who have such a strong opinion to just focus on the happiness and the love that we
found and it's something that people look their whole life for you know and and I think that the people who are
focused so much on the negativity are the ones that are probably alone right because they're focusing on the wrong things in life and they're spending all
of that time and energy on somebody else's relationship rather than their own yeah and it is really interesting
the focus that that that the season brought on money and and career in
relationships when I don't think people understand how often relationships people fall in love with
let's just say that money is not always the most important thing in people's relationships and yet somehow this season made it seem like money and
career compatibility was the the number one thing in choosing a partner i I totally agree and it's kind of
fascinating watching it back because yes money and financial stability are important for like a loving you know a
stable family right but the I think the way that the the editors showed certain
people in regards to money they made it seem so extreme like oh because David was living with his parents at the time
means that David doesn't have a job means that David's never worked in his life means that David's always lived with his parents and honestly David had
been there for six months he had lived in California for the last 10 years on and off previously with his ex- fiance
he has two careers currently so it makes no sense to me of the things that they focused on and for me you know I just
had I've had the same job since out of college so I've managed to work my way up really high and it's a typical
corporate America job so I make really good money but I didn't put on my application that I wanted a man that
made an x amount of dollars because I've dated some of those men and to be honest they're kind of [ __ ] like and they
are stuck up and they think that they can get whatever they want and that's not the only thing that makes a relationship happy exactly and it was
such we know that you and I know this but somehow on the show it was just like this stumbling block that was like well
money is the most important thing and you're like yeah which like there's so many other factors that go into it like money can come and go i mean I've
experienced it in my family you know I didn't grow up with a lot of money in our family so that's one reason why I
wanted to work so hard to make my own but that doesn't mean that you know it's the central focus of of a relationship
and it shouldn't be yeah let me ask you some specific questions about being on the show so you you marry Allen a
stranger at the altar never seen him before then you go on a honeymoon you meet all the other people when I was
watching the show I noticed that you guys all got on a party bus and they drove you to the airport to go on the honeymoon was that the very first moment
that you laid eyes on David yeah so I had met the other the other women
previously because we did like a combined bachelorette party and then when we were all headed to the airport together was the first time that we got
to meet everybody else so that was the first time that I actually got to see each of the couple's interactions and
then obviously was the first time that I had met David so yeah so is that captured on your first the first time
you ever laid eyes on David is that captured on camera in the show i think it is actually because I think I think
me and Allan walked on the bus second and then I think David and Michelle walked on next and and weirdly enough
David and I ended up sitting next to each other on the bus and I didn't even remember that and I was watching it back i'm like "Oh that's weird there we are
sitting next to each other here we are sitting right next to each other." Yeah okay so you go on the honeymoon and um
then you you meet the other couples you and Alan are having some conversations you get home and then you live in an
apartment in Chicago for a few weeks each of the couples is in the same apartment building trying to see if this
relationship is going to work and while you are there they have each of the couples goes out on some dates and some
of these are kind of cool you're climbing trees you're working out at the gym i'm curious did you say like did you
get to pick what you did for the dates or how much say did you kind of have in that yeah so we usually worked with our
producers like everybody kind of knows what your likes and dislikes are in terms of you know are you more activity
focused which obviously that's was kind of my forte you know are you more artsy you know or uh you know more type of
candle making or yoga kind of like Carla so everybody had their their niche of what they liked to do and then our
producers would kind of set up dates based off of that um or give us kind of options i know that they wanted to
switch things up so that not two couples were doing the same thing or the same type of date um so we we at least got to
do some type of some type of things that we wanted to do kind of based on our interest that's what it seems like it
right like you go to the gym and you go tree climbing and stuff so it seemed to me like those were things they tried to
tailor to you you know yeah well and I think that was one thing that I I remember seeing some comments of well
Allan's doing all the things that Madison wants to do and I'm like I didn't set up these dates you know i'm
like I've said what I like to do i'm just going along with the flow trying to People forget like we're on a TV show
right i'm like I'm also being instructed to do things like yes I'm just being followed around by a camera but I'm also
told hey you have to be at this place at this time so like for example I'm just curious when you went to that gym to
work out is that like actually your gym does the production like you you know I don't know how much you can tell me
about some of this stuff but like Yeah no so the gym actually is this your real life like how much So that was the gym
within the the share department oh gotcha okay so it was you're all living
there and that's just the downstairs gym got it okay exactly yeah so I imagine you wanted to keep some distance from
your your real your real apartment your you know and what was filmed because you
were on camera like 247 in this show in fact even sometimes in the apartment they're showing there's like a there's
like a can on the ceiling while you're sleeping like what was that like to know that you were on camera just 24/7
well I feel like in the beginning it's definitely hard to get used to but then you kind of forget that they're there
right i mean you just get used to them always being around and so it definitely factors good and bad of what you say how
you say it what you're doing i mean the the cameras that they had in the I think it was the kitchen and the living room
um were really there just to show if conversations happened during off off filming hours which of course they like
to show me coming home at like 3 in the morning at least like seven times in a row and I'm like "Okay those were whatever." More dramatic than it was but
here we are so um it was it was weird it was interesting to have to know that
you're just being recorded all the time and for them to be able to use it however they want I think was the the real kicker right and that being said
they have obviously hours and hours and hours and hours of footage of you over the course of 6 8 12 weeks whatever it
is do you feel like there was some stuff that they left out that you wish viewers
could have seen are there some moments where you're like well if only they shown this part I would have been happy
or you are you glad some of that stuff didn't isn't on the show i don't know if
it's necessarily things that they Well actually one thing that I do wish they would have shown was the gift that I
gave it to Allan on our wedding day i noticed that there was they they skipped that part they only showed Allen are we
getting Allen's gift uh which was a Tiffany necklace which the the purpose of the gift was to
give them a piece of you to show it's kind of your first hint of who they are and initially I thought that the the
gift that Allan gave me was sweet but then I later found out that he had lost the original one and then to me my gift
to him was super thoughtful i got him a Broncos uh coffee cup pack of golf balls
a little like keychain with skis on it a like fake plane ticket um and then
something something else I can't remember but it was like little hints about who I am and I put a lot of You were trying to show him before the altar
like "Let me show a little bit about who I am." Exactly and so it was a really thoughtful gift that I'd given to him
and and he gives me this bracelet which I'm like you know not all women love jewelry and you don't even know what kind of jewelry I like so for me I
thought it was a little bit of a non-thoughtful easy cheap gift non-che gift because it was the Tiffany bracelet
but that was something I wish they would have shown because I think for the rest of the season they show Allan as this
you know super sweet which he is a super sweet guy but putting in all of this effort and I'm not you know I'm just the
mean girl who's superficial and only cares about what type of underwear he wears right and by the way I don't think
you are that at all um thank you i appreciate you i have spent a little bit of time with you not a ton of time but I
think I think what when I was watching the show what I think sometimes got cut
from my point of view was your openness and sweetness and devotion to the
process like people of course want to um
latch on to the fact that you ended up with David and not with Allen the guy that you initially married at first sight i get it that was the drama that
was fabricated for the season but you are a very genuine kind person and I feel like sometimes there were some
edits to try to make you look not that way right well I appreciate you saying that cuz it is it was very hard to watch
it back and see things that like damn i mean that the way that I'm saying this sounds so much worse than how I said it
and it wasn't intentional of how I was trying to say things so um I I I cling on to the people who have also reached
out to me and said you know I can see your genuine authenticity you know more
so probably even after the show which that's what I'm trying to do now right I didn't this is all you know
unedited content that I get to now have my voice and and people can see who I am
instead of what you know the show wants to show of me right right so you and David are currently together you you met
on the show uh you got together on the show you're still together give us a little life update about what so the
show was filmed like 18 months ago now yeah yeah so a little over a year and a half ago which is crazy that's
interesting because we watch it and you've already been together for a year by the You're probably wa You and David probably watched the show together yeah
so we watched most of it together which was nice because we were able to kind of laugh our way through some of the really cringy parts of it
um but yeah so it's been over a year and a half now and we we live together now and we had our first big trip that we
did a couple of months ago to Barbados which was so much fun fancy yes highly recommend um we've got you know a couple
of weddings coming up we did our first couple of weddings last year um we've got another couple of big trips coming
up this summer um he's been to Colorado a few times to meet my my family and friends and um you know we've done stuff
with both of our parents here in Chicago so um it's been very easy to mesh our lives together um and we're very excited
to be able to share it with everybody and I know I had mentioned it earlier that you know the support that we've been getting now on social media has
been really positive at least from our our personal Instagram accounts and we're just going to continue to show our our love and our journey and we're not
trying to throw it in anyone's faces but we had to be quiet for so long and now we're able to actually just show the
genuine connection that we have and we want to we want to be able to do that so obviously you guys both signed up for a
show to get married to strangers which in kind of implied that you were ready for marriage so have you and David said
the n-word now with each other oh absolutely we both know that we want to
get married at some point um we're we're still just you know traveling and enjoying some of our time right now but
I definitely see at least an engagement within the next like year year and a half oh well that's exciting
okay now let's say you do get engaged and married in the next couple years what kinds of things I mean you you
walked down an aisle already once i mean I know it wasn't to the love of your life but you've had the kind of the
wedding experience what do you want to do differently or the same to when you get married to David from the experience
that you had on the show for the wedding because you told me if you weren't be willing to to to tell before that you
actually really had a fun night the night you even though you and Allan didn't end up together tell us a little
bit about those wedding memories and then what you would do the same or different when you get married to David yeah um when I had first signed up for
the show you know I told my friends and family you know regardless of who's at the end of the aisle the wedding day is going to be a blast because we're we're
two people who put ourselves on the line we're we're so brave to do this and we're going to have the best day and
that's exactly I love that attitude by the way i love that and it was so much fun i mean if you watch the wedding
episode we are dancing we're having so much fun you know we're all a little drunk eating drinking having a good time
and so for me you know in the the next goound I'm I definitely want to continue like dancing is a requirement but I did
not get to dance enough on my own wedding so I'm going to make that I'm going to have a time limit of this is how many hours I want to be dancing and
anybody else you know you can come around before then or after then but I will be on the dance floor for 95% of
the time my gosh I love that and would you um have a similar kind of dress that
So you have a beautiful dress in this in the show by the way which did the producers pick that out or did you get
to pick out your own dress so we got to pick out our own dress um so they just they uh partnered with a a bridal studio
so we got to pick you know a couple of dresses that we wanted to try on and so I was able to pick that one which I was
really happy about but you're going to get a different dress i know yes i'll definitely get a different one would it be Would it look similar would you go a
new style i think I'm going to do a different style um I was really happy with the dress that I I bought um or got
for the the show but I definitely think I want to do a little bit more traditional because I think I had more
of that nudie kind of lacy undertone um in the one for the show and I think I
want to do a little a little different maybe you know um more of like a sweetheart neckline or like just a more
of a full open back with like a higher front so I've got some ideas i've got some ideas okay i love that so um in
terms of like you and David are you guys in touch with anyone else from the show i mean you and David are together have
you stayed in touch with anyone else from the show yeah so Camille and Thomas are are two of our best friends we we
try to see them at least once a month i'm actually getting dinner with Camille later tonight
yeah she Are you allowed to share any updates about her yeah I mean her and Thomas are going strong they're living together too same place as um I think
I'm on one of the last episodes of the Where Are They Now um she started a new job recently and has been crushing it in
the real estate kind of world um yeah just living life so we uh we really try to catch up with them quite a bit and
then um I think David keeps in touch with with Juan and some of the other guys a little bit um I don't really keep
in touch with with many anybody else though so those are kind of the the main people that I'm focused on
so if you um if someone came to you and was like "Hey I'm thinking about being on Married at First Sight or I'm
thinking about being on a reality show." What advice would you give someone who was thinking about doing what you did um
I would say go to therapy first before you start the process because I really
wish that I would have done that just to really make sure that I was I thought that I was mentally okay with everything
but it's a lot i mean it's a lot of hours of filming it's very taxing on your mental health and the aftermath of
everything is really hard um but then also you know make sure that you have the best support from your family and
friends like there's no way I would have been able to do this without them they were so supportive from beginning middle and end you know just through the
through the the process in the beginning during everything that I was going through and then now with you know everything being out in the open and and
dealing with social media and and trolls and all of that so making sure that you have an army to be able to support you
and then also just making sure of what you want you know knowing that when you go into it you could come out looking
any different way there is no guarantee of how you're going to be portrayed or what they're what character they're
going to put you in so be okay with whatever outcome I would say but that's
really hard to do i mean because no one goes into a reality show thinking that
they're going to look like a villain in the show no one thinks that yeah right i didn't think that and I'm like super
villain number one i mean I think it's a little more nuanced than that personally but yes I
do think there were definitely some moments on the show where they try to make you look bad like let's not mince words here like I do think they wanted
that drama was part of the excitement of the season right um do have your friends
and family continued to be supportive of you and David's relationship after the show oh yeah my dad My dad and David
literally were talking the other day i'm like "You're talking to my dad?" He's like "Yeah we have we have a great relationship." I'm like "Okay cool i'll
I'll call my dad later." So yeah it's it's very easy his parents are so great you know they're exactly like David is
just very chill easygoing and and that's how my family is too so you know and
David gets along with all of my girlfriends he always like checks in on them which is the cutest thing ever so it's made it super easy honestly it's
just it's nice when you meet somebody and they just fit really well into your life you're not trying to have to force
them into different pockets of your life to get that to get it to make sense you know it's just easy i mean that's one of
the reasons you and David are together and that you stayed together is that both that it's not just you two but your
extended circles is also really supportive and mesh as well as well so
if you were if you could like rewind the tape or I mean sorry I'm a boomer we used to have tapes if you could I've
watched tapes before so don't worry my kids are like "Why do you sometimes say that we're going to tape something
instead of?" I'm like "I mean record something sorry I'm old." The push button on my iPhone if you could um go
back in time would you go on the show again i would definitely go on the show again for sure i I think
that you know the concept of it really makes sense to me and I appreciate the
foundation of it obviously I would do things differently um but you know I I
think that I'm I'm a sucker for love you know I'm a hopeless romantic i wanted I went into the show because I wanted to
find somebody and I wanted to give that a chance in a different unconventional way and I ended up finding it so I would
I would go through hell and back to find you know the person that I wanted to end up with and and I did so and you did
what would you say was the funnest part of being on the show gosh
um I feel like honestly just I think it was probably like during
the honeymoon actually there was one of the a couple of the nights when we tell people tell people who haven't maybe
seen tell us where you went how long you were there oh yeah so uh during the honeymoon we went to Mexico we were at summer resort it was kind of in between
Tulum or Plyel Carman and Cancun and we were there for a full week so we did a full week of you know all sorts of
activities and you know dancing we did a boat day one day um and I think just
because that was such a new point in the show like it was right out of the gate right after the weddings nobody really
knew each other um and so it was not a lot of stress and not a lot of drama had started yet and I think that was
probably I was just going to say it's before there's the couples you're like you're still really hyped up about it
right yeah you're coming off the high from the wedding and you're you know now you're in Mexico and you get to do all these fun activities and dinners and it
was a really nice resort actually too so I think that was probably one of the most the most fun parts of it before
things started getting a little hairy yeah because you don't know each other well enough to have like some of these
issues right right exactly you're just a bunch of random people just like we're just random people on vacation we all just married strangers let's just get
drunk in Mexico and figure it out yeah exactly um I'd be interested to follow and see
where you go on your next honeymoon i know not Mexico you can't go to Mexico definitely no not Mexico i promise you
it'll be You got to rewrite this whole story I feel like yes yes got to redo all the things um you took a week off to
go on the honeymoon you actually had to take a lot of time to film were you Did this have an effect on your employment
in terms of Did you have to take a lot of time off work did you have to tell them what you were doing so I did have
to tell them what I was doing um just because I have I have certain rules with my company um when where I travel a lot
for work so I just had to get on a non-traveling schedule but honestly outside of the honeymoon I didn't take any time off uh we they filmed around
our schedule so we sent them our schedules ahead of time and so we would either film after work before work on
the weekends kind of depending on whose schedules were during what times and so it was the same thing when we did group
things too so it made it really easy but at the same time if you're working from
like 7:00 a.m to 5 or 6:00 p.m and then you're filming from 6:00 or 7 to 11:00 makes for some really long days so again
going to people who are considering doing something like this making sure that you're mentally and you know kind
of physically able to to do that type of thing for the amount of time because it's a lot it's taxing yeah it's a lot
for sure okay okay well if you're watching this you know that I am a budoir photographer and I run the
Chicago Budwoir photography studio and this is how I met Madison and I had just such a fun day with you in the studio um
I would just love to ask you what gave you the idea to book a budoir photo shoot yes so I have actually done a
budoir shoot before uh when I was living in Denver and I just wanted to do one because I had seen a couple of people do
them that I know and they just look so empowered and sexy and confident and I was like you know what I'm single i
would love to just do a shoot and just have these photos for myself so I did it i loved it i have the photos you know
sitting next to my desk and then I was on Facebook and came across your Chicago
Budoir page saying "Hey enter to win a free shoot or free photos or whatever."
I was like "You know what cool why not just try it?" And then bada bing bada boom I won there you go oh my gosh yes
and it was amazing so for any of you watching if you have not done a budoir shoot with Liz it was so much fun i
can't even remember how long I was there but I got my hair and makeup done we did all of these different outfits and kind
of scenes for different shoots um and I got the most beautiful photos from them i love them and David loves them so much
so they were a great little gift did you have any like fears i mean
you're a very daring person you obvious you married a stranger on TV but like before you did a budoir photo shoot did you have any fears before you came in
i mean probably not going in with you just because I had done it before but for my first budwire shoot you know not
every woman is super comfortable or or confident being you know in lingerie or you know being just more exposed um
especially in front of a camera so I would encourage anybody who's feeling shy or you know uncomfortable just maybe
go to the bar before take a couple of shots or something loosen you up because it is so much fun i mean you made me
feel so comfortable like obviously you've done a million of these shoots so you know seeing women's bodies is
nothing to you you've seen all shapes sizes and it was so much fun so I highly
highly recommend it we really had a good time together we had so much fun i could stay there forever we laughed we cried
we just we really had a fun time together um so thanks for trusting me with your boobar photos and for creating
such a beautiful gift for David that's really fun so what's next for you Madison what's coming up what's coming
up for you and David yeah so I mean I I think David's got a couple more podcasts
to do and and hopefully I'll be able to do a couple more as well just kind of wrapping up things i think I think we're over talking about you know everything
that happened on Married at First Sight but we're really excited to talk about you know what we learned from it and where we've grown from it and what we
can do with it you know I mean I would really like to share my experience with more people or if anyone's ever curious
of what it's like to be on a reality TV show or is interested in doing a reality TV show i think it's important for
people to just you know band together and especially as women i think for me especially I was a big target in this
show of you know some of that cyber bullying and I think as women we get targeted a lot more than men especially
when it comes to these kinds of situations and I I know that people don't think I'm a girl's girl because of
the situation with Michelle but you know there's going to be two sides to every story and I would like to encourage
people to be empathetic that's kind of my word for this year of just understanding where people are coming
from and that you can support two sides of a story and understanding two different situations and you know really
trying to use the experience that we went through for for good so hopefully more things to come maybe you'll see us
on another screen at some point i don't know we'll see i mean my big takeaway interestingly was
I met you and I hadn't seen the show and then I went home and watched it and I just I knew you before I saw the show
and knew how kind and wonderful and beautiful and you were and then to go watch the show and have some of this
like just really unkind stuff on the internet i don't know for me I was like you don't know her she's great and I
think that is one important thing to remember about first of all reality shows are not always reality and what
you see on the internet is not always true and what I mean of course you've said this already in this interview you
would do some things differently of course we all would with our lives right like but the thing is we don't have cameras pointed at us all the time
recording it and then showing it on the internet so I think like you said a little empathy a little compassion and maybe a little understanding that what
you're seeing is not the whole story as well exactly couldn't have said it better yes well Madison thank you so
much for joining us today and for sharing your story i just I love love love that you were able to put your like
kind of your whole life on the line to find love and then in the end you did and that's the kind of love story we all
want to root for we're all looking for that kind of love and I'm just so happy that you found it and that you and David
are happy and that you've got a lot of things that you're looking forward to in the future thank you so much i'm so glad
we got to chat it was so fun you gota You got to come down to the city so we can go out to drinks though because we need a little bit more
let's make a plan it would be so fun to see and I've never met David so I would love to meet Yes yes only if I can bring
my husband because he's a bigger married at first sight fan than I am of course he's gonna like fan girl more than me to
meet David oh I love it i love it that's great all right well thank you so much
for coming on and joining us today thank you for having me