This Married at First Sight couple can’t seem to get past this one issue. Three weeks out from Decision Day, Amber Martorana and Dave Flaherty are still dealing with Amber’s insecurities when it comes to her hair color.
In Tuesday’s episode of the Lifetime series (produced by Kinetic Content), the couple was happy finally going to the gym they share together, with Dave saying he hoped them getting a tandem sweat on could be a big part of their married life together for the rest of their lives.
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But even before things popped off, Amber was feeling the pressure of her insecurities, worrying about how her performance in her dance aerobics class made her look in front of her new husband. Things got really uncomfortable, however, when Amber’s friend Ashley stopped by to say hi to the couple, and got a little too friendly for her liking, mentioning she was single and looking to mingle.
“This is so dumb, but seeing Dave talk to my friend Ashley, I’m a little bothered by it,” she admitted to the cameras. “Ashley’s a tall brunette, and Dave is into tall brunettes, so it kind of goes into all my insecurities of not being good enough.”
She added, “I know that it doesn’t make any sense and it’s not logical, it’s just something I have to overcome.”
Instead of keeping her admittedly illogical thoughts to herself, however, Amber brought up the meeting to Dave off camera, the couple revealed to Dr. Jessica Griffin during their communication check up.
The relationship expert seemed baffled by Amber’s dwelling on the hair color preference Dave had expressed early on in their marriage, especially what with Amber being a natural brunette who bleaches her hair.
“I think we’re seeing the same pattern, the same argument,” Griffin advised the couple.
As an exercise in recognizing their own communication style, the couple then watched back footage of an uncomfortable exchange they had earlier in the season, during which Amber got very defensive when her husband suggested maybe she go back to her natural hair color when she mentioned that the bleaching was beginning to make her hair fall out.
“I just want you to be healthy,” Dave said at the time.
Watching the video back, Amber saw that the argument she thought she was having at the time was not the argument that was going on in reality.
“I do see how sometimes I can jump to conclusions,” she admitted to the cameras afterwards. “So it was a moment of realizing there’s a difference between what Dave said and what I heard. Yeah, that was just bad.”
Dave, meanwhile, recognized that he has a tendency to shut down when faced with conflict, admitting that he needs to be more proactive when it comes to making her feel more “safe” in their marriage.
Can the two come together in the final weeks of their marriage experiment? Or will they continue to redo the battle of the blondes?
Married at First Sight (produced by Kinetic Content) airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
Photo credit: Lifetime
