Tantric workshops, couple swaps and toys: Intimacy pressures on MAFS exposed

Tahnee Cook was a cast member on season 10 of Married at First Sight Australia. (ABC News: Daniel Fermer)

When former Married at First Sight Australia participant Tahnee Cook heard about allegations of rape on the UK version of the reality show, she was horrified but not surprised.

"I can see exactly how the situation can, I guess, set up something like that," she told 7.30.

The allegations came to light on the BBC's Panorama program, with two women accusing their on-screen husbands of assault.

The men have denied the allegations but the British broadcaster for the program, Channel 4, has taken down every episode.

"Given the nature of the show, you do feel the pressure to ... progress quite quickly in the relationship, whether that is intimacy, whether that is connecting with that person," Ms Cook told 7.30.

Ms Cook was 27 when she became one half of the youngest couple at the time, to tie the knot in the Australian show's history.

She said she had thought about what she was signing up for by going on the show.

"I wasn't really having much luck with dating and ... I'd seen the previous season and I was like, oh, maybe I could do MAFS," she said.

"I didn't really think too much about it. Maybe it was a bit naive going into it, but was just like, what could happen?"

Tahnee Cook with her Married At First Sight husband, Ollie Skelton. (Instagram: @itstahnee)

Three weeks after her on-screen wedding to then-26-year-old Ollie Skelton, the couple were told by the producers they would be participating in 'Intimacy Week'.

"We had to do this awful tantric sex workshop, which thankfully never got aired ... but it was these weird breathing exercises," she said.

"I had to lie on the floor, and my husband was putting the feather around me in front of the instructors, the production [crew].

Then, there was a special delivery of intimacy props to their apartment.

"We got given a gift from the experts and it was sex toys," she told 7.30.

Ms Cook says she almost reached "breaking point" when producers pressured her stay in another 'husband's' apartment as part of a partner swap.

Tahnee Cook says the producers of the show created a dangerous environment for women. (ABC News: Daniel Fermer)

"This was the first time they did this challenge and the last time I think they did the couple swap," she said.

"We had to go stay with another husband for three nights, which was something I did not want to do.

"I actually thought my reaction on camera was like, 'Surely not. This is absolutely a piss take'."

Loni Fagel is an American trauma therapist who worked as a