Married at First Sight star Amber Martorana is opening up about Dave Flaherty's "wife rating" of 7.5 that really hurt her feelings and made her question the success of their arranged marriage.
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As shown on last week's episode of Married at First Sight, Pastor Calvin Roberson asked Dave, Bobby Dodd and Tristan Thompson to rate their wives on a scale from 1-10 based on how life was going after tying the knot at first sight.
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While Bobby gave his wife Danielle Bergman a stellar score of 10, Tristan scored his wife Mia Bally an 8, and Dave rated Amber an arguably-average 7.5.
During a Tuesday night appearance on Married at First Sight: Unfiltered, Amber told host Jamie Otis she "maybe" understands now why Dave gave her that rating, which he believed to be a good, solid score at the time.
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"There's so much that was going on that I had absolutely no time to do anything. We had totally different schedules, so I think it was unfair, honestly," Amber explained.
Dave said he issued Amber the rating of 7.5 because he didn't feel like they were taking on household responsibilities equally. When it came to chores, for example, Dave was doing nearly all of the cooking, while Amber neglected their laundry even though she had initially offered to take on the task.
"I was just mad, like, just lie! Just give me some white lie and make me feel better!" Amber vented.
"That's all I wanted at that point. It was very -- I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear how you're rating me at this point, because I'm already insecure about how I'm doing as a wife."
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Amber added, "There was already so much going on that I just felt like it was kind of unfair to judge."
Amber was clearly hurt by the rating because she was trying very hard to make the relationship work, and she naturally holds herself to a very high standard.
"I just felt like the way we were connecting, I think he was thinking of a traditional wife. But everything else going on with us, I felt like we were in such a great place and we were just getting along so well. There was so much else going on that was so great that I didn't think he was taking into consideration in the rating," Amber explained.
Amber said she was already insecure because she's "not very domestic," meaning she's "not good at cooking" and it was "impossible to find time" to do laundry with her day job and the Married at First Sight experiment.
"I felt like I had already let myself down, so knowing he also noticed that, it was just hard to hear," Amber admitted. "I want to feel like I'm an equal partner for him, and what I heard is I wasn't."
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Jamie disclosed she personally does not like it when the Married at First Sight experts ask the men to rate their wives, but she did point out Amber at least didn't receive an incredibly low score, such as a 3.
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In terms of whether Amber has any regrets on how she handled the situation and her insecurities, she reasoned, "I do wish I would have taken it as constructive criticism instead of taking it so personally and letting my insecurities get in the way."
Amber confessed. "[I wish I] had taken a step back and said, 'What can I do to improve this? What else would you like me to do?' instead of just putting a wall up."
At the time, Amber was developing strong feelings for Dave and she wasn't sure whether he reciprocated such feelings about her and their union.
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"So I think I was taking it more personally than I normally would, because it seemed like he wasn't completely happy with me," Amber explained.
"And so, I was a little worried about it. There are some other things, like in the furniture store, it seemed he had more doubts about buying furniture, like we might not need something permanent."
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A bonus clip then aired on Unfiltered of Dave telling a salesperson at the furniture store he and Amber were "in a weird circumstance" and only looking for something for "short term."
"There were other little things that had led up to that moment too," Amber revealed. "So I think I was just scared and I couldn't control my emotions at that time."
Amber has also expressed insecurity over her looks on Married at First Sight's seventh season.
Amber feared she wasn't Dave's type given he typically went for tall brunettes. However, as the show unfolds on Lifetime, Dave is showing great patience in the situation and Amber is learning to trust Dave more and establish more confidence in herself.
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