Married at First Sight viewers and cast members hoping Amber Bowles will dump her unfaithful husband Matthew Gwynne on "Decision Day" and begin dating her best friend Raven instead are going to be disappointed, according to the MAFS star.
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RELATED LINK: 'MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT' COUPLES NOW: WHAT COUPLES ARE STILL TOGETHER? WHO BROKE UP? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
Raven, a 28-year-old operations manager for an IT services company, has made a couple appearances on Married at First Sight's ninth season as Amber's rock.
Amber has gone to Raven for advice about her marriage to Matt, and Raven was the person to inform Amber that he had spotted Matt out at a bar with another girl.
Because Raven seems to really care about Amber and have her best interest at heart, Married at First Sight stars and viewers have been wondering whether the pair ever dated or why Raven has remained in the friend zone.
"Raven and I have been friends for 14 years, and we care about each other deeply," Amber shared with Reality TV World in an exclusive interview recently.
The 27-year-old eighth grade English teacher added, "At this point, he is like a brother to me. We have never dated and never will."
During a recent Married at First Sight: Unfiltered episode hosted by Jamie Otis, Amber's co-stars Deonna McNeill and Jamie Thompson watched back a Season 9 clip in which Raven was shown telling Amber that she didn't deserve to be someone's second choice or a backup option.
Raven said he didn't like the idea of Matt -- who often disappeared for hours on end without calling or texting -- hanging out with his friends all the time and therefore advised Amber to make sure her husband knew her worth.
RELATED LINK: 'MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT' STAR AMBER BOWLES: I HAD SUSPECTED MATT GWYNNE WAS CHEATING ON ME (EXCLUSIVE)
Otis therefore asked the following viewer question on the September 4 episode, "Is it just me or is Amber's friend Raven totally in love with her?"
After Otis admitted she agreed with that viewer's perspective, Thompson noted, "I'd go with yes."
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"Yeah, same!" Otis shouted on Unfiltered. "What do you think, [Deonna]?"
"I don't know," Deonna quietly replied, as if she didn't want to admit her opinion.
"Oh, I think he's so into her," Otis pushed.
"I think he's in denial," Thompson said.
Pastor Calvin Roberson also appeared during the Unfiltered broadcast and shared his two cents on the subject.
"Yeah, there is something there," he explained. "I don't know if she's returning the sentiment though."
Otis had Pastor Cal's back on that statement, adding, "I don't think she feels that way towards him at all, but I definitely think he feels that way towards her."
Otis reiterated her belief that Raven has feelings for Amber during Lifetime's September 5 broadcast of Married at First Sight: Couples Couch, which features former MAFS couples offering commentary on encore broadcasts of the show's episodes.
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"I think Raven's in love with her," Otis said as she watched the episode with her husband Doug Hehner, whom she married on Married at First Sight's first season.
"Why aren't Raven and Amber dating?" asked Doug.
"I don't know," Otis replied.
"Raven cares so much for her," Doug said.
"Yeah, like Matt doesn't look at her that way," Otis noted.
"Raven's nice. What's wrong with Raven? I vote Amber and Raven," she continued after watching Raven reveal Matt's apparent infidelity to Amber.
Several other former Married at First Sight couples also made similar comments during the Couples Couch broadcast.
"Look at how he's looking at her," MAFS Season 8 star Kristine Killingsworth said as she watched the show with her husband Keith Dewar. "Look at how they're looking at each other."
"I don't know, I think they need to be more than friends," Kristine continued.
"He loves her," Married at First Sight Season 5 star Anthony D'Amico told his wife Ashley Petta as they also watched the scene air.
"Is Raven available?" Ashley asked.
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During the Married at First Sight casting special, Raven told the experts he was open to marrying a stranger because his family history has featured arranged marriages, including his grandparents.
"I jumped for the opportunity to apply for Married at First Sight because I've been in the dating pool and it's not necessarily the greatest, fun thing to be in all the time," he said.
"And I'm getting near my 30s where I'm ready to kind of establish and grow with a partner and figure out what my life is going to be and kind of move to the next phrase."
The casting special also showed Amber discussing her relationship with Raven when Raven happened to call Amber while Married at First Sight expert Dr. Pepper Schwartz was visiting her home.
"I've known him since high school, we ran cross-country together. I've known him since I was 14," she told Dr. Pepper while the MAFS expert inspected Amber's living environment prior to her casting.
"We kind of did the [application] process -- we started it together. So we're best friends basically."
"That's amazing," Dr. Pepper replied.
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During their matchmaking deliberations, the Married at First Sight experts considered matching Raven -- whom the show labeled "Mr. Figuring It Out" -- with a woman named Matlin as the season's fourth and final couple, but ultimately decided Amber and Matt were a better match instead.
"Raven stole my heart, he is a Southern gentleman," Dr. Viviana Coles gushed.
"He's adventurous, he's a very likeable guy. He believes in arranged marriages, his grandfather was an arranged marriage," Dr. Pepper said. "But my reservation is he's living with a few guys kind of like you would when you first got out of college."
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"We haven't had much luck in the past with people who say they are going to change," Dr. Pepper said.
"You're absolutely right. People often say they are going to change but they don't," Pastor Cal answered. "This is a lot of pressure. And that's why I'm concerned also with [matching] Amber and Matt."
"Because [Matt] told me he's giving up his life as a basketball player overseas," Pastor Cal continued.
"But how do we know he's not going to get this sweet deal and leave and be gone for ten months out of the year again? I have to admit I have a concern. The last thing we would want to do is put Amber in a marriage where her husband was hardly around."
However, Dr. Pepper assured Pastor Cal that Matt had told her he was retiring from professional basketball and looking to start a mobile auto detailing business in Charlotte.
Amber recently told Reality TV World that Matt put zero effort into starting that business during their eight-week marriage experiment.
"I know for a fact that throughout the eight weeks, the only thing Matt did was open a business bank account," she said.
RELATED LINK: 'MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT' COUPLES NOW: WHAT COUPLES ARE STILL TOGETHER? WHO BROKE UP? (PHOTOS)
Married at First Sight's Season 9 "Decision Day" episode -- the event in which each participant must decide whether they wish to divorce their partner after eight weeks or remain married -- will air Wednesday, September 11 at 8:30PM ET/PT on Lifetime.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
