Laura Vaughan’s MAFS diary: Alex enjoys making women angry – he’s playing a big game

LAST night’s dinner party was a little bit anticlimactic for me and the ‘big surprise’ wasn’t a surprise at all. 

We did see Alex attempting to make amends with some of the people he’s upset over the last week in Thursday night’s MAFS UK – but I just don’t believe him. 

I think Sacha and Ross coming in hot was absolutely not the right decision. By going into the dinner party in quite an aggressive fashion – particularly Ross – they really played into Alex’s game plan. 

It’s really interesting because the whole theme of this week has been that Alex does not speak to the men like he does the women. 

We definitely saw this come to fruition in the dialogue he had with Ross. We saw Ross get quite aggressive with him and Alex did not respond at all, he just stayed very calm and walked off. 

Whereas when Sacha and Polly were hurling abuse at him, he was very reactive and getting very personal. 

Alex: You came across very calm in this episode, but was it just because you were clever enough to realise that the experts were watching you?

He knows that the experts are watching the dinner party so he was very happy to stay calm, even though he was doing the most to wind the girls up by sitting there and smirking. 

It just goes to show that this man enjoys making women angry. I’ve got your number, Alex – I’ve worked you out. 

I applauded Sacha and Polly for standing up to him but the way in which they did it just really fell on its face. 

This series is really lacking a mediator and, I hate to blow my own trumpet, but that was me last season, they need to bring me back. I just try to put out fires left, right and centre and approach conflict in a very balanced way. 

You’ve got a lot of hot-headed people in this series and it’s just causing the messiest arguments. 

The big surprise – if we can call it that – at the dinner party was that Holly came back. I think she should’ve just left. 

Alex said to Sacha that Holly wouldn’t come at him the way she did. Has he met Holly?

Does he know who he’s married to? Because Holly is actually really hot-headed. 

Then we saw the fall-out of Kieran kissing Polly. There was nothing in that kiss but Kristina has been really struggling with the lack of intimacy in their relationship. It’s clear now that Kieran has checked out.

It’s heartbreaking to see Kristina come to that realisation herself. I can’t imagine that they’ll be in this experiment for much longer. 

If Emma and Caspar don’t write “leave” at this commitment ceremony, I just don’t know what their goal is. 

When Emma was sat at the dinner table looking around at all of the other couples kissing, that was kind of how I was at the last dinner party before I left Arthur at vow renewals. 

I remember thinking, ‘Everyone has come such a long way and I don’t feel like that’. That’s quite a stark realisation for her. 

I’m predicting that Holly and Alex, Emma and Caspar and Kieran and Kristina will write “leave” – or one of each couple will – at the next commitment ceremony.