Married at First Sight star Kirsten Grimes has accused her husband Shaquille Dillon of being "shifty," claiming he wasn't interested in being in their marriage.
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With only a few days to go until Decision Day, Shaquille and Kirsten both seemed unsure of whether they felt fulfilled and wanted to stay married to each other for the long haul, but Kirsten was the one still fighting to save their relationship.
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Kirsten watched back a Season 16 clip in which she was shown confronting Shaquille about his cold and often unsettling demeanor towards her during the May 4 episode of Married at First Sight: Afterparty.
"When you come home, I don't feel like you're happy to be here," Kirsten says. "Sometimes you don't talk and I just don't get that feeling [of being liked or wanted]."
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Married at First Sight even aired footage of Shaquille coming home and walking right by Kirsten in the kitchen without a word.
"Want me to fix you some salmon and broccoli?" Kirsten asks her husband.
"I'm fine," he snaps back.
And then when Kirsten asks how he's doing, Shaquille replies, "I'm alright."
Kirsten therefore concludes in her confrontation, "Why are we here? Do we like each other? What's going on?!"
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"We never had a conversation about it," Shaquille explains, "and I didn't know you felt like that."
Kirsten claps back, "Well I'm telling you now, so we can work on it."
Kirsten admitted to Afterparty host Keshia Knight Pulliam that she was "feeling a little stressed right now," having to relive those moments all over again.
"I'm sitting there expressing to him how I'm feeling and asking him, 'How can we work on it?' And he's still not giving me any feedback," Kirsten lamented, "which is showing me right now he's not even interested in being in this marriage."
"So how can we move forward and stay married forever?" Kirsten added.
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Kirsten alleged that Shaquille was "very shifty" towards the end of the extreme experiment.
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Kirsten suggested Shaquille was hot and cold with her, explaining, "He's in and out of the marriage all the time, and that's because he has multiple things going on. So if he's not doing well in his PhD program or whatever he has going on in his outside life, he's bringing it into the house."
Kirsten noted how Shaquille essentially left her in the dark about his feelings.
"If you're not going to let me know what's going on with you, how can we be there for each other?" Kirsten questioned.
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Kirsten's MAFS co-star Jasmine Secrest joined her on Afterparty and admitted that she initially thought Kirsten needed to change in order to fix her marriage.
"But then I'm watching it back and I'm like, 'Ooohh, like, that was real dry [of Shaquille],'" Jasmine said, adding how Kirsten and Shaquille never seemed to be on the same page.
"She has grown so much in the marriage, and now I feel like [Shaquille] is at a point where he's kind of checking out."
Kirsten announced how she took all she could take during the last week of the process and was at her breaking point.
"I'm trying my best to have positive energy. I'm still at the house washing our clothes, I'm still at the house cooking. I'm still trying to check on him, and I'm letting him know what I need," Kirsten shared.
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And Keshia pointed out how Kirsten was doing all of that on top of her own career in real estate.
"I just feel like he's drifting away minute by minute. He's so [detached] from this marriage, and it's challenging," Kirsten said.
But Kirsten wasn't willing to give up on her husband.
"I'm still willing to work through this marriage to see if it could possibly change after filming and everything is done. I have a little hope," she noted.
"I really feel like I understand why we were matched together... You have to continue to put forth effort. No matter how down Shaquille gets, no matter if things do or don't work out, I'm always going to continue putting in the effort and work everything out. But I can only do so much as a person. He has to do the same thing too."
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Before Kirsten confronted Shaquille about feeling ignored in their marriage, Kirsten sought her brother William out for a venting session.
Kirsten shared how her romance with Shaquille was up and down and she didn't think he was having enough "intentional conversation" with her.
"I still don't feel 100 percent emotionally connected to him, and then sometimes I also don't feel like the physical connection is there as well," Kirsten explained.
"I don't feel like we're being affectionate enough towards each other. I don't. I don't feel like he's trying to win me over... It just feels like we're disconnected and it just feels like we're living with each other and existing with each other."
Kirsten came to the conclusion that Shaquille was trying to juggle so many things at once -- including his career and school -- that he was having trouble focusing on their relationship and finding a balance.
Kirsten, however, acknowledged how she could take more initiative to welcome Shaquille into her family and make him feel accepted. Kirsten therefore planned a family gathering at the couple's apartment, but only her mother showed up.
Shaquille admitted to Kirsten's mother that he wasn't being the best version of himself and he needed to correct that, and Kirsten's mother advised them both to live in the moment and stop "expecting" things from each other.
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