Former Married At First Sight Mzansi star Tshepo Miya is finally opening up about his experience on the reality show — and he’s not holding back. Tshepo, who was matched with Palesa Mphaki, recently set down for an exclusive interview with Lungelo KM on Engineer Your Life to tell his side of the story.
Tshepo and Palesa’s marriage on the show ended in heartbreak. What started as a promising TV romance quickly turned into a turbulent relationship filled with arguments and emotional pain. The couple confirmed their separation in September 2025, with Tshepo expressing regret over how things turned out.
Now, Tshepo is revealing that what viewers saw on television wasn’t always real. According to him, many of their diary sessions were carefully curated to hide their true experiences.
Tshepo speaks out on how in his TV marriage their diary sessions were curated to hide their real lived experience. #EngineerYourLife pic.twitter.com/6p1KsTKYL5
— Engineer Your Life (@EngineerYLPod) October 7, 2025
He explained, “The thing was it was very clear to say when we need to not air out our dirty laundry, so when we are there on camera, we need to appear as people that we’ve got our s**t put together. There was a time I spoke about creating a script and it’s there. To say I’m going to go see this expert about this issue that we’re having, I’m going to say this, and when you speak to the experts as well, you need to say this so that we are in line with one another.”
Tshepo added that one of the show’s experts began to suspect that something wasn’t right. “There was one particular expert who clocked there’s something amiss with Tshepo, and they asked me, ‘Do you really feel like this is your person?’ My response was no,” he revealed.
Tshepo OPENS UP about his wife allegedly asking him to stop engaging with female crew members while shooting #MarriedAtFirstSightMzansi
Watch the full episode now. pic.twitter.com/TbWQ5Z7DS1
— Engineer Your Life (@EngineerYLPod) October 6, 2025
He also opened up about one of the biggest sources of tension in his marriage — his wife allegedly telling him not to talk to female crew members during filming.
“She had told me she doesn’t want me communicating with the wardrobe people because they were females,” he said. “Her explanation was that it’s easier for them to contact me, and then I’ll contact you.”
Tshepo insists he never gave Palesa a reason to distrust him. “Maybe my friendliness, in terms of sharing jokes, laughing around, and conversating with people, made her feel like I don’t like this,” he explained. “Her response was, ‘I just don’t want you to become the centre of attention.’ Maybe it was one of the things I was doing during that time that she didn’t like, and I never got a real understanding as to why I couldn’t converse with other females.”
Tshepo TELL ALL.
“We made an agreement on how to spilt our finances, but when it came to her, it was just silence…”#MarriedAtFirstSightMzansi #EngineerYourLife pic.twitter.com/mDvTEI5tLZ
— Engineer Your Life (@EngineerYLPod) October 6, 2025
He further opened up about challenges in their home life, including how they handled money. “It was agreed between the two of us to say when we move in, we’ll see what was required for the household, and mine was to say, ‘Here’s the bank card, here’s the vehicle — whatever you require, please acquire that.’ But I think the issue was that I was asking for what I believed were just small things, but the small things were just not coming,” he said. “I would go buy groceries myself after asking for days. I’d be the one to go to the shop and buy them ultimately, but the responsibility we had agreed upon was hers.”
He added, “We made an agreement on how to split our finances, but when it came to her, it was just silence…”
