Simon Blackburn, a former Married at First Sight Australia contestant. (Instagram)
Married at First Sight Australia has axed a contestant for spewing misogynistic and homophobic hate on his social media.
Simon Blackburn, a fly-in, fly-out miner, was originally featured in a teaser trailer for the reality dating show’s upcoming ninth season.
The promo shown in September at the Nine Network Upfront presentation showed a bearded Blackburn walk down a hallway.
But a spokesperson for Channel Nine confirmed to the Daily Mail Australia that the network will edit out the Melbourne local completely from the show.
His scenes, which had all been filmed, will now be completely scrubbed from the programme after his on-screen wife flagged to producers about the videos.
On his Instagram account, Blackburn blasted queer people as “filthy” while making degrading remarks about women.
Jessica Seracino, a florist, had filmed her wedding and honeymoon with Blackburn before discovering the incendiary clips online last month.
Insiders told the newspaper that Seracino was stunned by her new husband’s social media – and Married at First Sight Australia producers had no clue about them.
Blackburn, the insider added, was quickly ousted from the show.
Married at First Sight contestant says queer people are ‘disgusting’
“When unacceptable social media content was discovered in relation to Simon Blackburn, we immediately took steps to remove him from the programme,” a Nine representative told the newspaper.
During an Instagram Live last year, Blackburn, a divorced father of two who has since contracted COVID-19, referred to queer people as “filth”.
“You might we well just jump into a box, you’re gonna get AIDS,” he said in the startling footage.
“If you are gay, you are gonna get AIDS. It’s just disgusting. It’s like filth. It’s actually filth. That sexual orientation is f**king filth.”
Among his other denigrating videos, he boasted that he does not date women “over 60 kilos” while he referred to a woman he dated as a “c**t” repeatedly.
They were content that “petrified” Bachelorette star Angie Kent, who said his videos were “incredibly toxic and dangerous” in an Instagram Story. “He came for me when I called him out,” she said.
“I had many women reach out to me with stories about him.”
Blackburn tried to downplay his online footprint in a statement posted on his private Instagram Tuesday (23 November).
“Just to clarify, I haven’t posted on TikTok in six months and all videos of me are reposts or screenshots of lives from last year!” he wrote.
“Not my current thoughts or mindset! No further comment will be given! I’ve got COVID, let me rest!”
Earlier this year, Married at First Sight Australia‘s Jason Engler was forced to apologise following his biphobic rant about fellow contestant Liam Cooper.
Cooper, who was outed as bisexual on the show, was called a “full-blown homosexual” by Engler in a rant caught on tape. He called Cooper “ugly”, “fat” and “chubby”.