Kyle Sandilands DEFENDS Married At First Sight ‘villain’ Bryce Ruthven

Bryce Ruthven has turned out to be one of the most controversial grooms on this season of Married At First Sight.

The 31-year-old has copped endless backlash and been slammed as ‘toxic’ from fans for ‘mistreating’ his wife Melissa Rawson during his stint on the show.

But on Tuesday, Kyle Sandilands defended the MAFS star and said he reminds him of ‘his younger self’.

‘I’ll tell you why I like Bryce because I see an early version of myself in him,’ Kyle said on KIIS FM’s The Kyle and Jackie O show.

‘[Someone who is] easily agitated, going overboard and standing up for myself but going too far.’

However his co-host Jackie O Henderson disagreed, saying: ‘Don’t say that on air. No I don’t think he is [the younger version of you].

‘You might have had anger issues but you also had the other side of you which was very funny and charming.’

‘You had all the good stuff that would sometimes outweigh the bad stuff but Bryce has just been shown as someone who just does bad stuff,’ Jackie said.

So far on MAFS, Bryce has infamously humiliated Melissa for her physical appearance, showed little regard for her feelings during arguments and admitted to ‘hooking up’ with a girl just two months before going on MAFS.

Many viewers are directing their frustrations towards producers, questioning why they allowed such a toxic relationship play out on screens.

Tweets flooded in last week, after Melissa told the experts that she felt ‘frightened’ and ‘scared’ to rock the boat in her relationship – even though Bryce had treated her with disrespect on multiple occasions.

Leading the backlash against producers was Gogglebox star Yvie Jones, who claimed she found Melissa’s words ‘troubling’ and felt that producers should intervene.

‘Where is the duty of care from producers to even put her in that position? And if pap shots are correct, they’re still together,’ she tweeted.

She continued in another Tweet: ‘So are they sitting at home watching this together? Is he seeing her say this on TV, alone in their shared home? Is he gaslighting her right now?’

Elsewhere, another Twitter user wrote: ‘It makes me sick watching this insidious relationship unfold… The producers have created a f**king abhorrent narrative between Bryce and Melissa.’

‘Producers only care about the ratings!!’ another added.