Married at First Sight star Shaquille Dillon has revealed when exactly he knew he was going to divorce Kirsten Grimes and whether he had given her a heads-up about his choice prior to “Decision Day.”
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After eight weeks of the extreme marriage experiment, Shaquille and Kirsten met with Married at First Sight experts Pastor Calvin Roberson and Dr. Pepper Schwartz on Decision Day to reveal whether they wanted to stay married or go their separate ways.
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Kirsten announced on the latest Season 16 episode how she “would love” to stay married to Shaquille and continue their journey together as spouses, but Shaquille completely shocked Kirsten and the experts by asking for a divorce.
“I think I got so emotional because I made a decision for me, and you know, Kirsten and I didn’t really talk about our decision before Decision Day. I tried to, but she was like, ‘No, your decision on Decision Day is your decision, and we need to keep it like that,'” Shaquille revealed on the May 24 episode of Married at First Sight: Afterparty.
Shaquille went on to insist, “I didn’t know my decision until that moment.”
Shaquille explained how he “didn’t think about it” the week before or even the day before.
“It was like, ‘Make a decision that’s going to be the best decision for you,'” Shaquille said.
When asked if he was at least curious about what life might be like staying married to Kirsten without all the cameras around, Shaquille shared, “Yes, but I thought you get to Decision Day and you make a decision. It’s not ‘life beyond Decision Day.’ It’s like, ‘You’ve got to make a decision on this day.'”
Shaquille said he wasn’t thinking about the situation as, “Let’s get past Decision Day and see if we both can make this work.”
When Shaquille announced his choice to divorce Kirsten on Decision Day, he explained, “It’s been very difficult for me, as a man, to really just try to step up to be the man that you wanted me to be and you needed me to be. But honestly, I’m just not settled with us.”
Shaquille said he had been feeling “alone” in the marriage and there were times when he believed Kirsten “wasn’t there” for him.
“It’s like, what more do I have to do as an individual to get you to see that? And it’s been hard. Every day I showed up,” Shaquille said, breaking down into tears.
“I tried to get you to let down your guards, but I don’t think nothing is ever good enough… I don’t know if there’s any more I can do to show you that I’ve been here for you since Day 1. I hope that you can respect my decision.”
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Shaquille admitted on Afterparty that he “got in my head” when thinking he couldn’t be the man that Kirsten wanted him to be.
“Because it was the expectation of, ‘I want you to be like my dad,’ but then I didn’t meet him until Decision Week,” Shaquille said.
Shaquille’s Married at First Sight co-star Nicole Lilienthal also appeared on Afterparty and confessed that she was “shocked” about Shaquille and Kirsten’s divorce.
“I think they should’ve given it a little bit more time,” Nicole said.
“Take away the cameras, take away the pressure, take away me always asking what’s going on and everyone else butting in your business. There could’ve been incredible growth, but I do respect that Shaq listened to his intuition and did what was right for him, and not just what was expected of him.”
And Shaquille said he was “grateful” for the process because he learned a lot about vulnerability and emotional intelligence.
Shaquille explained on Married at First Sight’s sixteenth season how he was just following his heart — and that his heart felt “heavy” on Decision Day. When he shared his desire to divorce, he broke down crying.
While Kirsten put on a brave face in front of Shaquille on Decision Day, she vented in a confessional afterwards, “Are you f–king serious right now? I should be the one crying!”
“You’re the one that said ‘no’ and is giving up! Some people aim so high they’ll never receive what they really want out of life or be okay with who they are and where they are in life,” she continued. “So, good luck!”
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On that note, Dr. Pepper even vented to Pastor Cal after the meeting, “How much does [Shaquille] need?!”
And Pastor Cal replied, “I’m sorry. I don’t see him getting any better than that.”
Shaquille hoped that Kirsten didn’t have any hard feelings toward him, but footage then flashed to Kirsten flashing two middle fingers into the air as she exited their shared apartment with her suitcases.
Shaquille just admitted that something was just “missing” with Kirsten, but he apparently wasn’t ready to close the door on their relationship forever.
“You never know if we just needed some real-life time apart to really think about what we wanted and needed in the marriage,” Shaquille told his friends.
“What if that time does happen? [It could be] like, ‘Let’s start off as friends. We’re still married. We’re not divorced yet!… Let’s go from there.'”
Kirsten, however, announced during a cast gathering at an axe-throwing bar — about four days after Decision Day – that she was done with Shaquille.
“It’s a door closed, because when you have a chance at something, you take your chance. And if you miss out, it’s gone,” Kirsten declared.
Kirsten told Shaquille that she had no plans to call or text him, or even check on him for that matter. Kirsten said when she’s done with something, she doesn’t communicate with that person or look back.
But Shaquille didn’t take Kirsten’s words to heart, as he later teased to the cameras, “She’s going to find her Prince Charming. She’s going to find her person. It may be me again one day. You never know where God may lead us.”
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About The Author:
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.