Married at First Sight UK brides tell BBC they were raped by on-screen husbands

Married at First Sight UK brides tell BBC they were raped by on-screen husbandsJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleBBCNoor NanjiBBC PanoramaWarning: contains details of alleged sexual offences and misconductTwo women have told the BBC they were raped during the filming of one of Channel 4's biggest shows, Married at First Sight UK, while a third has described an allegation of a non-consensual sex act.The show did not do enough to protect them, they all said.Channel 4 was aware of some allegations before broadcast, and all the episodes featuring the women continue to be available on its streaming service.Reacting to our findings, the chairwoman of a new creative industry watchdog described Married at First Sight UK's format as "televised abuse". She is now calling for an independent investigation and says the "dangerous" show should be taken off air.Channel 4 said all the allegations are "wholly uncorroborated and disputed".When approached by the BBC on Monday, Channel 4's outgoing chief content officer, Ian Katz, said he had not seen the Panorama documentary, adding: "They are obviously very serious allegations. We want to see the show and when we see the show we will respond."Lawyers for CPL, an independent production company which makes the UK version of the show, said its welfare system is "gold standard" and industry-leading, and that it acted appropriately in all these cases.Billed as a "bold social experiment", Married at First Sight UK - known to many as "MAFS" - sees single people agree to "marry" total strangers, after meeting for the first time at their mock weddings.The marriages are not legally binding, but viewers see the couples go on "honeymoon", before moving in together and navigating their relationships - all while being filmed, almost every day.The three women we have spoken to are all making allegations about the men they were partnered...