Cortney Hendrix has come a long way sinceMarried at First Sight.
“I honestly do not have regrets about it,” she told us.
“There were obviously uncomfortable moments, but there were so many lessons that I learned.”
She also spilled some tea on what really goes on behind the scenes atMarried at First Sightweddings.
Spoiler alert: lots of interviews and alcohol.
And she also dished on how in-depth thecastingprocess actually is.
Well, so I didn’t have any family there and I was walking down the aisle by myself.
I thought he was cute.
They are so red and his were too.
And I remember thinking, “This guy is so scared.
We can’t have two people up here freaking out about this.
Suck it up, buttercup, and let him be the freak-out and you be the calm one.”
So what were the best and worst parts of that day?
The best part was my best friends being there.
I was really worried that, because I didn’t have any family there… Blah, blah, blah."
I mean, it was one of the best days because it was such a great party.
Well, where are your parents?"
And asking him, “Are you going to tell her where your mom is?”
So when we get back in there, our friends are bombed already.
They were living their best life.
But I remember after that, we messed up walking into the reception too.
I don’t think we ever ate until… No, I never ate that day.
So the experts are different now than they were when I went through this.
We had four different experts.
It was very important to me that faith and God be the center of a marriage.
That was actually a deal breaker for me.
Because if someone practiced a different faith than me, it wasn’t going to work out.
And I wasn’t interested in trying to make that work out.
So that was a deal breaker.
And I feel like there was one more… Oh, something stupid about money.
And I usually had the attitude of, “Oh, I don’t need a man.”
Well, what I realized is I might not need one, but I want one.
And so that was another important thing, I wanted to be taken care of.
And then the physical stuff, she straight-up asked she said, “What are you attracted to?
Some of these people were like, “Oh, I’m not attracted to him.”
And we had to go through and rate the people based on physical looks…
I feel like it was a scale from one to five.
Oh, you rated the other male contestants from your season too.
That makes a lot of sense.
I don’t remember seeing anyone in there.
And so that was really part of the physical.
I don’t know if they do that anymore, but they did that with us.
Is that still the case?
Yeah, no contact.
I was literally thinking about this before we got on here.
It’s literally to the point where it’s someone that I used to know.
I do feel that it’s better that way especially…
So I’m remarried now, he’s remarried.
I think that’s probably the healthiest.
Yeah, so I can talk about the things that I’ve mentioned before.
I wasn’t really in a healthy place for a really long time.
Being at home… And it’s not that I didn’t know anyone because I did know people.
And the people in relationships and marriage aren’t doing the same thing that your single friends are doing.
Was I going to be going out to the clubs still?
Was I going to be hanging out with friends?
And it’s tough.
There’s a lot that goes into it.
It’s a lot of hustle.
And that’s really what it all came down to and we were relatively young.
I was 26 when I went through the experiment; he was 27.
I’ve grown up a lot.
I see the error in my ways, which was a tough cookie to handle.
A lot of social media helped me kind of see that.
I had to accept the criticism that I was receiving.
And it took me a long time to be like, “Yeah, Cortney, you suck.
These people aren’t making it up.
you better reevaluate your situation.”
And I needed to reevaluate my relationship with God too.
I was the farthest I’ve ever been away from Him during that.
And it was so sad because you guys were on totally opposite schedules.
I remember reading the book a couple of years ago about the love languages.
He and I had very, very different love languages.
And I’m a needy person.
I like to be touched.
I like the physical touch.
I want someone with me, and how I show my love is through time.
He was always going to volunteer to work holidays and it makes sense, but it was hard.
And some days I was okay with it, a lot of days I wasn’t.
And you have to be okay with it.
There are no ifs, ands, or buts.
You have to be okay with it.
So what would you have done differently?
What’s one thing that we saw on the show that you would have changed?
And when I knew that…
I was scared to ask for help because I had cameras in my face.
And even though that was not something I was prepared to be on TV about… All I had to do is pick up the phone and call and show up.
And it took me too long to do it.
And I remember going back and watching the season and people even writing online, “She looks depressed.
She’s not taking care of herself.”
But I wasn’t.
Something as simple as washing my hair, brushing my hair, I wasn’t doing that.
I didn’t realize it.
So I met Sherm off of Instagram, basically.
But I started only drinking vodka, which isn’t a good coping mechanism.
And I got hurt, and that’s why I have a scar right here.
I fell at my friend’s wedding, or the day before her wedding in London.
Wait, were you drinking straight vodka?
You were mixing it, I hope.
With a little club soda, but definitely not too much.
So I just stopped completely.
I think he was passed out and he actually had nice arms.
And I was like, “Oh, who’s that?”
She was like, “Aren’t you married?”
And I was like, “Well, I’m separated.
It’s just not common knowledge yet.”
And she was like, “Oh, okay.”
So she ended up telling him that I thought he was cute.
He stalked me on Instagram a little and then messaged me.
And we’ve basically been together ever since.
That’s when we told each other we loved each other, that soon.
I’m in a sorority as well… we’re always thankful for our sorority sisters.
She came through for you.
Yeah, she pulled through, and she didn’t even know she was supposed to.
And so we decided…
I don’t know… And I couldnotstop crying.
I want to be in your life.
I want to be in your life in some sort.”
And so we did it together, but…
I don’t know.
I was like, “This is not right.”
And then I won.
Do you have any regrets about going through the process?
I honestly do not have regrets about it.
And people tell me, “If you got divorced, that means you regret it.”
And we really balanced each other out.
And we fought for each other and fought for our marriage for a really long time.
But how my life has changed…
Growing up, I wasn’t like, “Oh, I want to be a makeup artist.”
Growing up, I wanted to be an actress and I wanted to be on a soap opera.
Back then, reality TV wasn’t a thing.
I never really thought I’d be on reality TV.
I personally could not separate real life from TV.
I act the exact same way on TV as I do in real life.
I didn’t play things up; I wasn’t a persona.
And so I think that that was good for me because I stayed true to who I am.
I have had doors open for me for work, for a little bit of monetary things.
I really miss that.
I don’t need to be the talent, but I like to work with talent.
I was able to do that at a young age when my friends weren’t able to.
I remember that was a storyline, but no one ever said that it was student loans.
It was just, “Cortney’s got debt.”
And Jason was like, “Yeah, you’ve got debt; I’ve got savings.”
And I was like, “Oh, no.”
I wanted to fight on TV.
In the beginning when you’re applying, to be truthful about everything.
Yeah, I’ll just leave it at that.
No one is famous.
And also when you see yourself on TV, own your behavior whether it was right or wrong.
There are a lot of people…
Sometimes I watch the show, sometimes I don’t.
Nobody’s a Slick Rick.
Nobody’s out to get you.
You were very true to yourself and I think it showed on TV.
Well, thank you.
I think you’re right though, too.
Because I’ve even talked to my dad about this.
And he was like, “And you have to remember that people went through this with you.”
Talking about money on TV is horrid.
I will say that.
I read inPeoplethat you guys, for COVID precautions, had people wear wristbands.
Can you explain that?
Yes, so we got these wristbands on Amazon and kind of did a stoplight system.
That sort of thing.
I saw it onThe Knot’s Instagram and so that’s where we got it from.
But our wedding was pretty small and that wasn’t a COVID thing.
And they were able to join via Zoom, which was nice.
But most of the people that were there, it wasn’t necessarily a concern.
And then the same thing when you go home… Everybody that was there agrees with the mask mandate.
So that was a comfort.
Everybody respected it the two weeks before.
And so that was a relief.
So I saw on your Instagram that you want to grow your family soon.
Do you have any hope for when?
Do you want a big family?
Well, I hope that it’s any day now.
We’re actively trying.
But we said we wanted two, but I would like to have twins, so one and done.
Catch Cortney and all previous seasons ofMarried At First Sighton Lifetime.
New episodes of Season 12 are now airing Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST.
