Married at First Sight star Henry Rodriguez has acknowledged that out of everything that could go wrong with marrying a stranger on a reality show, he never anticipated the woman the experts matched him with would blackmail him!
ADVERTISEMENT
Henry, a 35-year-old clinical recruiter from Arabi, LA, and Christina, a 30-year-old flight attendant from Houma, LA, were matched by Married at First Sight experts Pastor Calvin Roberson, Dr. Pepper Schwartz and Dr. Viviana Coles to wed on Season 11 of the Lifetime reality series.
RELATED: 'MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT' COUPLES NOW: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS RE-MARRIED? (PHOTOS)
Henry and Christina never developed emotional or physical intimacy during their marriage, and after four months of trying to work through their issues, the pair mutually decided to get a divorce on "Decision Day."
Once incident in particular that happened before the couples' retreat appeared to put Henry over the edge and extinguish any hope the couple might've had to repair their relationship and stay together.
ADVERTISEMENT
During a recent episode of Married at First Sight: Unfiltered, Henry watched back a Season 11 clip in which he discussed an alleged text message Christina had claimed to receive from a man saying they had slept together and Henry is gay.
"Christina threatened to hold it over my head if I didn't 'have her back,' I guess, throughout the rest of the process," Henry told the cameras in the clip.
"And I'll say this: even if she did receive a text, to hold it over my head and threaten to release it, I think is despicable."
Henry told Unfiltered host Jamie Otis that Christina "100 percent" threatened him with the alleged text message from his supposed gay lover.
"What?!" Jamie replied in shock.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Like, she kept holding up her phone and [said], 'I'll release it. I'll out you,'" Henry recalled. "And I'm like, 'What text?'"
"I'll out you?!" Jamie repeated in disbelief.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY KNOW? (PHOTOS)
"Yeah. First of all, I'm not gay," Henry added, "and if you're going to blackmail me, make it realistic."
Jamie explained, "The way she went about it, like, making it blackmail rather than trying to understand her husband or be on your side -- instead, she's like, 'I've got blackmail! You better not say anything bad about me!' How does that bode well for your marriage?"
ADVERTISEMENT
"Yeah," Henry noted. "I was floored."
Karen Landry also joined Henry on the Unfiltered broadcast and was asked to share her thoughts on the scandal.
"I don't know if blackmail is something you can come back from," Karen said. "like holding something over someone's head."
Jamie then asked Henry how he planned to move forward in his marriage after such an event.
"I mean, early on I had a lot of concerns. Some of them played out kind of how I was afraid they might play out," Henry admitted.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I think you mentally try to prepare yourself for a lot of things, like, 'What if I'm not attracted to them? What if they're not what I asked for?'"
"But I didn't really get into, 'What if they match you with a girl and eventually she blackmails you for having an affair with a guy?'" Henry continued. "I don't think you quite prepare yourself for that... I didn't prepare for that."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Henry added, "So that being said, moving forward, I'm just going to take it a day at a time, but it's going to be a pretty big obstacle to overcome."
Henry also said on Unfiltered he didn't feel Christina embodies the qualities he wanted in a wife when going into the extreme experiment.
Henry viewed Christina as a dishonest person who seemed to have an excuse for everything, and he claims Christina never showed him the text message from an alleged "reliable source" but unknown number -- despite his multiple requests to see it for himself -- and so he's not even sure the text message exists at all.
Christina insisted she never really believed Henry is gay, but Henry argued Christina had been very adamant about him supposedly liking men.
"Reflecting back on it, it should've been handled way differently. And I can understand why you'd be pissed off about it," Christina said on the "Decision Day" episode.
Henry told the cameras, "For her to sit there and say she didn't think essentially that I was gay is absolute lies, and the fact she can't admit that is laughable to me."
On Thursday night's Married at First Sight reunion special, Henry revealed a major concern he had about Christina early in their marriage was that he had heard from some of the couple's wedding guests that Christina's prior relationship was with a married man.
RELATED LINK: 'BIG BROTHER' SHOWMANCES NOW: WHO'S STILL TOGETHER? WHICH COUPLES HAVE SPLIT UP?? (PHOTOS)
ADVERTISEMENT
Henry said he was told that Christina's five-year relationship -- which ended only eight months before she applied to marry a stranger -- was "toxic" and she and her ex had done crazy things to each other.
"From that point forward, I'm like, 'Okay, that's a huge red flag. Is she going to do crazy things to me?' And then I let it play out. And at the end of it, I was essentially blackmailed by some text that accused me of having an affair with a guy," Henry said on the reunion.
Henry also said he observed a pattern of dishonesty, impatience and rudeness from Christina from the start of their relationship.
Christina ultimately confessed to holding the alleged text message about Henry having an affair over her husband's head, saying, "I'm going to own up to it."
As for the remaining Season 11 Married at First Sight couples, Brett Lindsey and Olivia also decided to end their marriage, but they called it quits over a week before "Decision Day."
Three couples, however, chose to stay married: Karen and Miles Williams, Amani Rashid-Smith and Woody Randall, and Amelia Fatsi and Bennett Kirschner.
RELATED: 'MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT' COUPLES NOW: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS RE-MARRIED? (PHOTOS)
Interested in more Married at First Sight news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group!