By now, many Australians will be familiar with the formula of popular reality TV show Married at First Sight, aka MAFS. Men and women who have been paired by the show’s producers meet for the first time at the altar and begin a months-long “experiment” in cohabitation. Some make it as couples, some don’t.
From the moment she appeared on our TV screens, it was clear that Lucinda Light was never going to simply follow the MAFS script. Now 44, Light joined the show’s 11th season in 2024 and was paired with Timothy Smith, a businessman from Victoria then aged 51. Their relationship ended before the season’s final episode, but for Light it sparked a fresh chapter in her decades-long quest for self-love.
“When I joined MAFS, I had come out of a big relationship, was a bit hard out on luck and love, and thought why not throw it out to the experts and see where I land,” Light says over the phone in her characteristic “I know a secret” tone. “I was open to seeing what I would find.”
Though she didn’t find everlasting love, since leaving MAFS Light has signed a major book deal and recently returned from Cyprus, where she’s part of a new UK dating show – on the expert panel, not as a contestant – hosted by Geordie Shore’s Vicky Pattison.
Light wears Bianca Spender top and pants, and Dinosaur Designs bangles.Credit: Steven Chee
“I never thought my career would kick off like this,” says Light. “At best, I thought it would be good for my business as an MC and celebrant. Little did I know it would be this explosive. It’s been amazing.”
Still, Light admits she’s had difficulty adjusting to the spotlight as what was once a private path of self-discovery became fodder for social media, the tabloid press and gossip columnists.
Another downside of fame, especially for someone who starred on a show about love and dating, is that it’s made establishing intimate relationships in the “real” world more problematic. On a recent date, Light thought she had a “spunky connection” with the man, but “halfway through the night he realised I was a celebrity because people kept coming up to take a photo. It really put him off.”
She adds, “We had a wicked night and there was good chemistry, but I think it was too much for him. I might have done a number on myself because very few guys would take me on after MAFS. It could be a problem, but I am still holding space for a man.”
Before fame found Light, she was already versed in the art of matchmaking, having run a speed-dating business in Byron Bay, where she lived for four years, arriving just as the COVID-19 pandemic kicked off. She also has a taste for adventure, having spent several years in her early 20s working as an adviser for one of the world’s biggest tour companies, Intrepid Travel.
Dress by Scanlan Theodore.Credit: Steven Chee
“It was my version of university!” she says of her time as a tour leader. “It taught me invaluable life skills and street smarts: everything I needed to confidently navigate the twists and turns of life.”
She adds, “Travel opens you up to new things in life – from personal self-discovery to making new friendships and learning so much about yourself when you’re out of your comfort zone.”
Coming full circle, Light has partnered with Intrepid once more, this time to lead a tour of tropical Queensland that will merge the best of the region, including its rich Indigenous history, with “Lucinda magic” – yoga, meditation and talks.
Helping others to combine romance with wanderlust is just one chapter in Light’s story. Her own journey to finding love – including self-love – and a place to call home has taken Light from her birthplace on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, to India, where she sought spiritual enlightenment in her 20s, then on to Byron Bay.
More recently she has moved back to Victoria, making her home in the hamlet of Aireys Inlet, along the Great Ocean Road. She shares a house with her mother, a spiritual healer, and it’s here she plans to put down roots by turning a barn on the property into her own tiny home.
Despite the obvious opportunities MAFS brought her, Light still questions whether her time on the show (aired by Nine, publisher of this masthead) was worth it. “In retrospect, it was a bit too much,” she says. “It was a very intense experience and I really learnt what I was made of.
‘My resilience as a human being meant I could hold myself with a calm central nervous system on the show.’
Lucinda Light, former MAFS contestant
“My resilience as a human being meant I could hold myself with a calm central nervous system on the show. I could bring my wealth of experience in a group dynamic, and being a travel-tour leader and a healing practitioner meant I could accept everybody and love them for who they are.”
Among the more compelling things about MAFS, or any reality show, are the backstories that inspire the contestants to take the plunge. Light is no different. A relationship in her 20s with a man eight years her senior left her heartbroken and led to depression, worsened by pain from a back injury.
Despite these knocks, Light says resilience and a capacity to rise above adversity are part of her DNA. Following the break-up, she developed an interest in spirituality, taking part in workshops and experiencing what she terms the “ego death” to emerge a stronger woman.
But the path from that time in her life to MAFS and on to the present was anything but straight. In 2022, Light was living her best life with four female friends in Suffolk Park, near Byron Bay, in a house they dubbed the “Mermaid Temple”. During this time, she dated a woman for nine months, but after realising her preferences skew more heterosexual, cast the net back to the opposite sex.
“I am all about putting energy into finding somebody special,” she says. “I am really planning to focus on dating again, and I’m always redefining my ‘man-ifesto’. I am also deeply trusting that the timing will be right as I have heaps to offer.”
Light was born and raised in the beachy town of Mornington, the youngest of three siblings. Her parents, who split when she was 12, ran one of the largest arts-and-crafts barns on the peninsula, which helped her to feel supported in life’s creative endeavours. Although they’re now in new relationships, Light’s parents remain on good terms, she says; both walked her down the aisle on MAFS.
“I had the most creative parents,” she says. “Mum and Dad also gave us great values, such as having each other’s backs as a family. We always forgive if we have squabbles and we are there for each other. I’ve become best friends with my brother and sister.”
Light wears Witchery dress.Credit: Steven Chee
Her brother Troy – “the pragmatic one”, Light says – is a piano tuner and musician, while her sister Eliza, who she visits regularly, lives in Far North Queensland with her six-year-old son, Willow.
Light might also have more time for family, at least temporarily, after recently finishing the 40,000-word manuscript for her debut book, Shine Your Light. She describes the book as a light-hearted guide to self-discovery designed to help readers out of their individual ruts and into their “flow”.
She says her own life changed after reading Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now and New Earth, and she also recommends Michael Singer’s The Untethered Soul and The Surrender Experiment. “I have always had this curiosity for emotional intelligence and inner wellness,” Light says. “I want to be the best version of myself, and that place of self-love leads to love.
“But I am also quite an emotional person and I have had my share of heartbreaks too. I call these moments the hero’s journey, where you experience what is referred to as the ‘ego death’ and a dismantling of one’s old identity. I promised myself that when I’m down in these dark spots, that I wouldn’t get stuck there, that I’d keep finding the tools to get through them.”
Light’s commitment to finding her way through life’s darker chapters has helped her amass quite the social media profile, including 637,000 followers on Instagram. Many of these are in the UK, where the Australian version of MAFS is also shown, and last year she toured Britain to sell-out crowds who came to hear her speak about emotional intelligence and answer their questions. (The tour was so successful she’s repeating it again this year.)
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In some senses, Light is emerging as a self-help role model for Millennials in the same way Elizabeth Gilbert did for Generation X with Eat, Pray, Love. She’s defiant, strong, knows what she wants and puts spiritual awakening on the table for all to see. And she hopes that by being vulnerable, she will find her perfect match – a man equally aware of his inner self.
It was the philosopher Socrates’ exhortation to “know thyself” that first prompted Light to train as a holistic counsellor in the mid-2000s. “We did therapy and dream reading – it was all about the psyche – and that was truly the beginning for me. My 25-year-old self became a passionate soul seeker.”
Light is unsurprised to still be seeking almost 20 years later. What she didn’t expect was to become the relationship expert many now turn to on social media. She’s leaning into that space more confidently and plans to do more live shows throughout the year, all the while still looking for true love.
“I am an acquired taste, and I am not everybody’s cup of tea,” she says. “After doing MAFS I had to take a long hard look at myself and question my ‘much-ness’. It can be a lot for the average Aussie fella, that’s for sure.”
Lucinda Light is hosting an Intrepid Travel trip to Far North Queensland.
Fashion editor Penny McCarthy; Hair Keiren Street using Wella; Make-up Aimie Fiebig using Charlotte Tilbury
STOCKISTS Dinosaur Designs; Scanlan Theodore; Witchery
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