Married at First Sight‘s David Norton can finally breathe a sigh of relief. After fighting to make his marriage work for six long weeks, he and Ashley Doherty are divorcing. Despite his optimism and candor throughout the process, fans suspected the marriage was wearing him down. Now, in a 2-part exclusive interview with The Knot, Norton isn’t holding back about the process or his soon-to-be ex-wife.
Leading up the Married at First Sight finale, Norton told Doherty he had never had a relationship grow so much in six week’s time. After watching their relationship unfold on TV, does he continue to feel the same way? “Yeah I do actually,” he admits. “Maybe not in an emotional sense, but it’s hard to beat a timeline where you meet, get married, go on a week-long vacation, house hunt, move in together, go to marriage counseling with experts, get a pet, host a party, have a marriage-threatening big fight, make up, go on a weekend getaway to get back on the same page, and then divorce.”
“I feel like that timeline is supposed to play out over the course of years as opposed to weeks,” Norton continues. “That’s what was so frustrating, was that our marriage was coming across these huge milestones, yet emotionally Ashley was still in the same place she was on day one.”
On the 2-part Decision Day episode, Norton told the experts he chose to stay married. As he was pleading his case, his wife appeared to be completely checked out. Did Doherty’s reaction led him to believe she would choose divorce? “It’s weird,” he says. “I watched the previous two seasons of Married at First Sight and their Decision Days and I was like, “Why is this so dramatic? They have to know what the other person is going to say.”
“But the pressure is real,” he goes on. “The tension is real, and there is more pressure on that day than even the wedding. On the wedding day, there was excitement and it’s the first steps of a brand new journey. You’re with family and friends, etc. Decision day, it’s just you, the experts, and your spouse. That being said, I had a good feeling Ashley was leaning in that direction just based on the previous six weeks of her inability to open up and get past the fact that I wasn’t her typical guy. I was not surprised by her decision. But at the same time, I was going to be true to myself and true to my commitment. I was not ignorant to the fact that we were not in a good place. I was very aware of that.”
After delivering her Decision Day verdict, the experts encouraged Doherty to share why she wanted a divorce. She spoke about Norton’s social media message to another woman, stating she felt “betrayed and disrespected.” Following her comments, The Knot asked Norton if he also felt betrayed and disrespected by Doherty’s treatment of him throughout the process. “Yes and yes,” he’s quick to share. “I feel betrayed, because I am watching things back, and you can see she’s not giving me anything. Even when we are forced to answer questions or open up about our feelings, she wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“But when we are not together, she tells the camera all of these things that I didn’t know until watching it back,” Norton continues. “I mean it’s frustrating, because had she told me some of these things, maybe we could have ended up in a different place. I feel a little betrayed and disrespected, because we are supposed to be a team, but it’s clear we weren’t playing the same game. The feeling of betrayal came to a head with the message.”
And does Norton believe the social media incident was used as an excuse to end the marriage? “Yes, I 100% think it was an excuse, even more so watching it back now,” he admits.
David Norton previously told The Knot that he was more nervous for Decision Day than his wedding day. Credit: FYI
During a post-show interview with Jamie Otis, Norton’s wife clued viewers in on her talk with Norton the night before Decision Day. She explained that her husband had wanted to be a “united front,” but they hadn’t come to a mutual agreement regarding their marriage. Doherty commented that it “didn’t take a rocket scientist” to see she was leaning toward divorce. The Knot asked Norton if he believes he had blinders on because he wanted the marriage to work so badly. “I am really happy that you brought this up,” David said. “The night before Decision Day, I tried speaking with Ashley about what we were going to do. It should come [as] no surprise that she was evasive and wouldn’t give a direct answer. I wanted us to go in there and even if we did nothing right this whole entire marriage, let’s at least get Decision Day right, which is why I said to her, ‘let’s have a united front.'”
“What raised my eyebrows a little bit is, she tells Jamie that she didn’t know what she was going to say until she sat on the couch,” Norton recalls. “I heard that and thought to myself, ‘she just sarcastically said that it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what she was going to say, 30 seconds after she just said that she didn’t know what she was going to say until she sat down; that doesn’t make sense. So what is it?’ Again, it’s just so puzzling.”
“Since she wouldn’t tell me what she was thinking- thus making it impossible to have a united front,” he continues, “I did what I thought was best, and that was to stay together. I also didn’t know what she was going to say, and I would have hated if I said divorce, because I was trying to create a united front and take my best guess, because that’s what Ashley wanted, only to hear that she wanted to stay together – which I think would have happened.”
Following the couple’s Decision Day outcome, Ashley said, “I don’t have the same feelings. I wish I did, but I don’t. And I do want the best for him. That’s part of the reason why I made this decision… because I genuinely feel that it’s the best decision for both of us. I think in time he’ll realize that.” Did Norton believe her statement was said with sincerity? “Do I think it was genuine? No,” he tells us. “I was sitting right next to her, and I know she wiped away tears, but I didn’t actually see any tears. That decision was the best decision for her at the time, and I am a grown man; I can make my own decisions. But was she right? Yes she was. It wasn’t going to work.”
So, what did Norton’s friends and family think of his wife’s decision to divorce? We asked him what his loved ones’ opinions are of Doherty now. “Well, I don’t want to speak for them,” he shares, “and they felt it was only proper to bite their tongues throughout the process and definitely had too much class and respect to air out their thoughts publicly, but I know that they were very confused after watching the 4th of July party play out.”
“There was no indication [Ashley] wasn’t having a good time,” he recalls, “and they tried so hard to make her feel included. Outside of that, they were confused and angry because they know how much I wanted to be married and how much I was determined to make this work no matter who I was matched with. Then to watch it play out that way was difficult for them.”
After hearing Doherty’s decision, Norton told viewers, “It’s clear as day that she checked out a long time ago… she never truly gave it an honest to God shot.” We asked him if he felt that way prior to hearing her decision and if that was a pivotal moment for him. “Hearing her say that really just brought me down to earth,” he admits. “I clearly had my head in the clouds, and at that moment I realized how far away we actually were from being a married couple outside of a piece of paper that says we are married.”
“But it’s hard to see that sometimes when you are in the moment,” he goes on, “because I was trying so hard to make it work; I was doing everything I could to try and connect with Ashley. I am a naturally positive person, and I have never been more patient or determined than I had been in this marriage and grew quite a bit as a person from it. I came back down from the clouds on Decision Day when Ashley said, ‘There are four or five different reasons why it couldn’t work.’ Then Dr. Joseph and Dr. Logan [asked] what those reasons were, and she couldn’t think of any.”
We asked Norton if he believes Doherty was ready for marriage or if he thinks she may have had ulterior motives – as many fans have suggested – when she signed up to be a Married at First Sight participant. “I think Ashley wanted to be ready for marriage, but I don’t think she was,” he shares with The Knot. “What I mean by that is, marriage is really hard work, and it’s clear she couldn’t get past not being physically attracted to me.”
“Well, in marriage there are way more difficult things that a couple is going to be faced with,” he explains, “things that you’ll have to work together to figure out. “And for whatever reason, she just refused to work with me to figure them out. I think that even if I was exactly what she was looking for physically, knowing what I know now, down the road, she wouldn’t have had my back, and we would have ended up in divorce. But hopefully she learned from this and can apply it to her next relationship, which I hope is a great one for her. As for her having ulterior motives… I really hope not, but it’s difficult to say.”
We just had to know if Norton and Doherty spoke at all between Decision Day and the post-show interview six months later. We were also curious as to whether or not he was worried about seeing Doherty again. “No I did not, and no I wasn’t,” he shares. “Like I said, I know that I was the best husband that I could have possibly been, so there is no reason to be nervous about seeing her again. I am okay with that though, and I don’t even know what we’d say to each other.”
Stay tuned for part 2 of The Knot’s exclusive interview with David Norton, which will be released Tuesday prior to the Married at First Sight season 3 finale.
The Married at First Sight finale airs Tuesday, March 1 at 9 p.m. EST on FYI.
