News Room : ‘Alcoholic’, ‘on the packet every Dinner Party…’: MAFS’ Bec reveals the heartbreaking truth about rumours she’s a secret addict – and why the smears are so deeply personal: ALI DAHER

There comes a point every season on MAFS Australia when one contestant – usually an outspoken bride – becomes the public punching bag.

This year, that role has fallen squarely on Bec Zacharia.

Depending on who you ask, she is either misunderstood, a loudmouth and unfairly targeted – or one of the season’s most reprehensible and irredeemable villains.

But whatever side of the fence you sit on, one thing is now impossible to ignore: the backlash against Bec has spiralled into something much darker than reality TV gossip.

I spoke to Bec this week. We agreed nothing would be off-limits – including the shocking claims circulating online that she is an alcoholic and drug user, as well as the vile abuse being directed at her and her high-profile family.

Bec is the first to admit she has made mistakes on screen and knows she is not everyone’s cup of tea. Still, she is firm in her belief that some of the commentary about her has crossed a line.

I spoke to Bec Zacharia from MAFS this week. We agreed nothing would be off-limits – including the shocking claims circulating online that she is an alcoholic and drug user

‘I’m probably the most hated woman in Australia at this point in time,’ she told me.

It was not said for sympathy. If anything, it came with the weary self-awareness of someone who knows exactly how she’s being perceived and has spent weeks bracing herself before each new episode.

‘You either love me or you hate me, and that’s just it. I know who I am at my core.’

But beneath the defiance was something else – genuine hurt.

Because for Bec, the most painful part of the public pile-on has not been people criticising her behaviour at Dinner Parties or picking apart her facial expressions. It has been the repeated suggestion that she is struggling with alcoholism.

And the reason it is so heartbreaking is because this is not some abstract insult to her. It is profoundly personal.

‘I was in a relationship with an alcoholic,’ she said. (Bec is not referring to her on-screen husband Danny Hewitt.)

‘It’s an incredibly tough disease for someone to have.’

Bec is the first to admit she has made mistakes on screen and knows she is not everyone’s cup of tea. Still, she is firm in her belief that some of the commentary about her has crossed a line

‘This whole thing about, you know, “she’s on the packet [at] every Dinner Party” and stuff like that, it’s just not true,’ said Bec

That is why, she says, the current wave of online speculation has been so upsetting.

Not because she thinks viewers cannot have opinions, but because she believes people are throwing around a very serious label without understanding the reality of what it actually means.

‘I’m struggling with these accusations of alcoholism,’ she said.

‘I’m not abusing alcohol at all and I never was.’

Bec does not deny that she looked intoxicated at times during filming – she is surprisingly candid about it, actually – but her explanation is a far cry from the version some viewers have run with on social media.

According to Bec, dramatic weight loss before and during the experiment significantly changed the way alcohol affected her body.

She explained she had already lost 20 kilos before filming began, then dropped even more during the highly stressful production consisting of long shoot days, not enough food and the pressure of fitting into tight dresses.

‘I would have two to three glasses of wine and I would be pissed,’ she said. ‘That never used to happen to me.’

The MAFS cast, including Bec, like to party – but she says the baseless speculation among viewers that she’s an alcoholic is completely beyond the pale

She says the change caught her off guard, telling me: ‘I lost 30 kilos and my tolerance completely changed.’

To be clear, Bec isn’t responding to the ‘alcoholic’ slur by claiming she is a teetotaller.

Instead, she is saying the version of her that viewers saw was someone whose body was reacting differently due to weight loss and stress.

Add to that an environment where every glassy look and slurred syllable is freeze-framed and dissected online, and it’s easy for viewers to distort her behaviour into something it wasn’t.

She also pushed back hard on another rumour that has been doing the rounds – that she was under the influence of drugs during the Dinner Parties.

‘I’m not on drugs. We got drug tested every week,’ she clarified.

‘This whole thing about, you know, “she’s on the packet [at] every Dinner Party” and stuff like that, it’s just not true.’

Again, it is the kind of denial that should not have to be made in the first place – but that is what this year’s season of MAFS has come to.

The discourse has moved well beyond the usual debates over ‘red flags’, gaslighting or cheating scandals that are really just coffee dates.

For some cast members, it has tipped into character assassination, with accusations of being ‘on the bags’ now thrown about on Reddit and TikTok like they’re nothing.

Bec says the messages she is receiving daily are relentless.

Bec (pictured with husband Danny) pushed back hard on another rumour that has been doing the rounds – that she was under the influence of drugs during the Dinner Parties

‘I get people messaging me every single day telling me how ugly I am and that if I’m this insecure I should jump off a bridge,’ she said.

This is no longer viewers reacting to what they see on TV. It is strangers telling a young woman to kill herself over a reality show.

And it is not just her copping it.

Bec says her family has also been dragged into the mess, receiving hateful messages of their own as the public commentary around her intensifies.

That, perhaps more than anything, explains why she felt compelled to speak out now.

She knows what’s happening on the show. She knows some of her words and actions have not landed well – in fact, she makes a point of not blaming ‘the edit’ for everything. But she’s also human.

‘What comes out of my mouth is what comes out of my mouth,’ she said.

That matters. It is an acknowledgment that she owns her behaviour – but that crucially the public is seeing only fragments of a much bigger picture.

‘People see tiny little snippets. They don’t know everything about me.’

And the off-screen version of Bec, at least as she describes it, is far more layered than the chaos viewers have come to expect from her on MAFS.

She volunteers at the RSPCA every fortnight and regularly fosters animals. She insists she is not the heartless, vindictive caricature some have made her out to be.

‘I hope one day people get to see the true and authentic me,’ she said.

Whether viewers will extend that grace remains to be seen. What is clear is that the MAFS experience is taking a physical and emotional toll.

‘I feel like I’m in a constant state of panic,’ she admitted.

‘Eating has been difficult because I’m extremely stressed.’

Elsewhere in our interview, she described her current headspace as ‘a roller-coaster’.

It is the side of reality television that rarely makes it into promos or Hollywood-style teaser trailers.

The cast members sign up for love, fame, exposure, maybe even a blue tick on Instagram and a few brand deals, if things go well.

What many do not comprehend until it is happening to them is the sheer force of a national pile-on once the audience decides who deserves to be punished.

Bec knows she is divisive. ‘I’m like Vegemite,’ she said.

‘You’re either going to love me or you’re going to hate me.’

That pretty much sums up the Bec I have come to know over the last few months. She is not polished. She is not media-trained. She is blunt, crass at times, and clearly capable of putting her foot in it.

But she also has enough self-awareness to know she is flawed, and is honest enough to admit when the noise is getting too loud, too cruel.

‘I’m not perfect. I’m just a human being trying to better myself every day.’

Reality TV thrives on chaos. It needs heroes, villains and trainwrecks to keep the audience hooked. But there is a difference between criticising what someone does on screen, and relentlessly trying to destroy them because of it.

Bec’s plea is not for everyone to suddenly like her. She just wants viewers to  ‘remember your words have weight’.

And in a season already fuelled by feuds, fake-outs and savage online commentary, that might be the most important message any cast member has delivered so far.

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