EXCLUSIVE: Awhina and Tim have reconnected since their ‘date’ on the show.

MAFS’ Awhina Rutene has revealed that she and her ‘backup groom’ Tim King recently reconnected. Photos: Channel Nine

Just before heading to Final Vows with Adrian Araouzou, Married At First Sight’s Awhina Rutene decided to meet up with her ‘backup groom’ Tim King to see if the grass was greener on the other side. The pair immediately hit it off and bonded over their similar careers, with Awhina admitting to producers that Tim had asked her more about her life in one hour than Adrian had throughout the entire experiment.

While the pair went their separate ways after the ‘date’ and Awhina continued her relationship with Adrian on the show, it’s been revealed that they recently reconnected. Awhina tells Yahoo Lifestyle following Wednesday night’s dramatic dinner party that she reached out to her ‘Plan B match’ after watching their ‘date’ on TV and being reminded of how “fantastic” he is.

“Tim and I have had a conversation since [meeting on the show], only after the actual episode aired two days ago,” she shares. “Watching that back, he was such a beautiful person, and I remember that whole day, he was actually so kind and caring.

“I just reached out to him and I said, ‘Hey, I really appreciate meeting you. You’re very kind and I really hope that from your little cameo on MAFS that you’ve got heaps of people from the Gold Coast sliding into your DMs. You are a really great guy and it was really nice to meet you’.”

Awhina adds that while she thinks Tim is a “genuinely kind person”, their current relationship is “purely platonic”.

“It was just confusing to me how he was another possible match of mine when they matched him with Adrian, because there are no similarities between the two,” she remarks.

Awhina believes there are ‘no similarities’ between Tim and Adrian. Photos: Channel Nine

Tim speaks out about his texts with Awhina

Meanwhile, Tim tells Yahoo Lifestyle that he and Awhina exchanged “a few texts back and forth” and even discussed plans to meet up again soon.

“We agreed that if I’m in Perth anytime soon, I’ll let her know and we can grab a coffee,” he shares. “It was great to hear from her and to chat about our experience on the date together, as after the date I got taken out by the producers, and that was it.”

He says they also spoke about how he was initially cast as one of the main participants this season, but decided to travel to Europe instead when producers said his bride wasn’t committed to going on the show.

“It seems like she was the ‘wishy washy’ bride who was very last minute to make a decision, so we think she was my original bride and Adrian was the backup when I went to Europe,” he details. “That’s what we think anyway.”

Does Awhina think she and Tim would’ve worked out?

While it’s unclear whether Awhina and Tim would’ve made it to the end of the experiment if they were matched together, she believes her MAFS experience would’ve been “completely different”.

“One, you wouldn’t need subtitles for Tim. Two, he actually communicated like an adult and we could have a conversation,” she remarks. “I remember on my honeymoon, the first honesty box I ever did turned into a massive argument. And since then, it was almost like every question I answered I was scared to answer organically because I was scared of what [Adrian] might say in response.”

“Whereas with Tim, we could have a conversation, and I didn’t feel like there was this weight on my chest. I felt like I was communicating with another adult who had emotional maturity behind him, and there was a genuine curiosity.”

Awhina also says it’s clear that Tim was on the show for the ‘right reasons’, whereas the same can’t be said for Adrian.

“I feel like Tim would have gone on because he actually wanted to get to know his partner and he wanted to build a relationship or at least grow as a human,” she asserts.

“Whereas if you go in there for all the wrong reasons like social media, you don’t care who the person is at the end of the aisle. You only care about your image, your agenda and your narrative, and you will bleed black and blue until you get your narrative spun your way.”