MAFS’ most controversial groom Eliot Donovan shows of his chiselled and tattooed physique as he takes his dog for a walk on the Gold Coast following his explosive exit from the show

He is arguably one of the most controversial grooms to ever appear on Married At First Sight.

And Eliot Donovan was seen hiking through rugged bushland on the Gold Coast on Tuesday following his dramatic exit from the show this week.

The 35-year-old businessman looked every bit the lone wolf sporting black shorts, a matching black cap embroidered with the word Venroy, and a cross body bag.

Eliot appeared lost in thought as he navigated the rocky terrain.

His muscular, tattooed frame was on full display as he went shirtless for the outing, with his defined physique a stark contrast to the vulnerability he showed on MAFS.

At one point, the controversial groom was seen pausing to adjust his sneakers while clutching a white towel in one hand.

His heavily inked arms, featuring intricate designs, only added to his brooding presence. 

Later, he was spotted loading his belongings into a white Land Rover Defender while his dog Olive – a strikingly patterned blue merle – remained loyally by his side.

Eliot’s exit from MAFS was nothing short of explosive.

Paired with high-maintenance bride Lauren Hall, their relationship crumbled under the weight of their differences.

During an unfiltered interview with Daily Mail Australia, Eliot admitted he was originally put off by Lauren’s attitude toward cosmetic surgery.

‘After a round of tennis Lauren bragged that she doesn’t like exercising, she’d rather just pay for the BBL’ he said.

‘And that was a huge one for me, that whole attitude. Nothing against cosmetic surgery, it’s more just not something that I’m attracted to.’ 

Throughout his stint on the show Eliot has copped plenty of criticism from viewers over his long list of ‘non-negotiables’ – but the outcry doesn’t seem to bother him.

‘Online, you’d think I’m about to be crucified! But in person? Completely different. People come up to me ten times a day asking for selfies!’ he laughed.

‘Guys will come up and be like, “Oh, can I get a selfie for my girlfriend?” And I’m like, “yeah, for your girlfriend, no worries!”‘

Eliot doubled down on his decision to walk away from the MAFS experiment less than 48 hours after meeting his bride.

‘Absolutely no regrets,’ he said.

‘I said I would do it and I did it. I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror if I’m there saying, “look, if she’s not right for me, if these things don’t line up, then I’m gonna leave” and then I stick around and go against my word. That’s not the sort of person I am.’

While his dramatic departure had fans talking, Eliot insists the real story wasn’t shown on screen – and claims the show’s editing made him look far worse than he actually was.

‘It’s so frustrating. It’s so funny with the way that they can like cherry-pick parts of my personality and then not show other parts where, you know… And people will say you said those things,’ he vented.

‘It can make it completely different if you’re doing it in a way that sounds harsh and aggressive, obviously it’s going to come out a lot worse.

‘If you’re saying it in defence of something or in a way where you are saying, look, I don’t think it’s fair or this or that, and you add context to it, then I think it communicates completely differently.’ 

Eliot’s ‘marriage’ to Lauren was rocky from the start – and according to him, their biggest issue was their differing views on starting a family.

‘The biggest thing was when I went on the show I did so reluctantly and I said to myself and I said to the experts, ‘if the match isn’t good as a long-term match, if there’s things that we can’t get past, then I’m not gonna stick around and bicker and fight for three months like you see every season.’ I said I’ll just leave,’ he said. 

‘For me, the biggest thing was the differences in like family goals. That’s a big priority for me. And it wasn’t so much for Lauren.

‘All the other stuff was more justification to say, look, I did say I would leave if she wasn’t younger or if we didn’t have a similar lifestyle.

‘And that was me justifying it more than anything, not that I needed to, but yeah, at the end of the day I just didn’t see a long-term future. And so I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time. I didn’t want to waste her time, didn’t want to waste my time.’

One of Eliot’s most bizarre outbursts on the show involved his apparent distaste for designer handbags – a moment that quickly went viral.

But now he’s claiming it was completely taken out of context.

‘There’s a whole backstory to that and that’s the thing is when you’re seeing like little tiny three-second clips, you’re seeing very carefully curated sort of message. You’re not getting the full context of it,’ he explained.

‘But that whole story started when we were flying to Fraser Island for the honeymoon and Lauren had these check-in bags and I’d never seen it before, but they had like a bag that went over the bag, like a protective cover for the bags.

‘I thought it was funny and I was like teasing her a bit about it. And when we got to the destination and she pulled the bag off the carousel one of them had come off. She was panicking and I thought that was funny.

‘And it was me I guess taking the p**s out of her a bit about that. And then she later on brought that up and made out this thing of, “Oh, just because you can’t afford these designer bags.” And that was me saying I don’t give a s**t about these bags.

‘It looked like I was attacking her about it, but that was actually me defending myself after she was like pointing that out.’

Another major point of contention was Eliot’s claim he wanted a partner who exercised – something many fans labelled ‘shallow’.

‘Again, just the context that was put in, it does look quite shallow but that’s something that’s important for me – to have a partner having a similar lifestyle,’ he told Daily Mail Australia. 

‘I want someone that I can go and have a round of tennis with. I want someone that I can go on a hike with. I don’t want to be with someone where they’re like reluctant to do things that I want to do. I want to be able to share things with them.

‘I never said it was anything about the look. I said she looks great. It’s more about having someone with a lifestyle that aligns with mine.’