Lifetime/Rose Marie Cromwell
If Lifetime’s Married at First Sight leaves you on the edge of your seat every week, then you’ll be excited about the premiere of the show’s spinoff series, Married at First Sight: Honeymoon Island. The eight-episode dating show will follow 20 singles, a few who were Married at First Sight participants, as they travel to a secluded island to meet one another and hopefully fall in love. If they do, they leave the island married. If they don’t, they’ll find themselves single yet again.
That’s a lot of pressure for any single person seeking a connection, but it was a challenge Jada Rashawn was up for. The 27-year-old professional nanny placement specialist and brand spokesperson based out of San Antonio decided to take the plunge after finding it hard to date in the city — a common complaint.
“There’s this feeling that a lot of people have of not cutting their options off too soon,” she said of the San Antonio dating scene. “And so I think that a lot of times what happens with that is you run into a lot of different scenarios of people who, I don’t want to say go in with bad intentions, but may not put in all of the effort that is required to make a relationship work.”
Coming out of a long-term relationship and after taking a break from dating for three years to pour into herself, Rashawn came back into the scene not wanting to have her time wasted. So she decided to seek out the help of MAFS experts, who selected the group of singles featured, without technically having to get married at first sight.
Courtesy of Jada Pickett
Rashawn had her usual desires for her dream guy: tall, dark (preferably Black that is), handsome with a caring heart and ambitious. But she also made the decision to be open to the men she might come into contact with, no matter what their look or even racial background.
“I know the type of guy that I’m attracted to and I just didn’t want to close off all options,” she said. “I think I would have robbed myself of being able to interact with the diversity that this show wanted to provide and I’m glad that I didn’t.”
“Of course, I’m a Black woman so I love Black men, but I’m also someone who is smart enough to acknowledge that it’s the person behind the color at large that’s the most important,” she added. “I also think that, you know, there is power Black love and I don’t think that we should give up on that. I just think that sometimes we can be too focused on just dating a Black man and we end up dating the wrong man because we all focus on is color. I love our culture and I love Black love, especially historically what we have gone through. I just think for this experience, in general, I knew there weren’t going to just be Black men.”
Rashawn knew for sure that she wanted to find love, but was she ready to possibly walk away from her experience on Honeymoon Island as a married woman? Yes and no. One might say that three weeks is not a long enough time to know if someone is marriage material, but this isn’t your typical dating situation. All distractions are taken away, including work, personal responsibilities and communication with the world in an effort to help the singles make the most of their time with their possible Mr. or Mrs. Right.
“Three weeks spending time with the same person is not necessarily the same amount of three weeks in everyday life. That’s more so equivalent to three months or six months,” she said. “And so I was prepared for this experience to really challenge me and allow me to connect with someone and see if I could build a strong enough connection. And so, to answer your question of whether or not I was ready to be married, I didn’t know, but the fear of not knowing wasn’t strong enough for me to not take the chance to see what if.”
Rashawn is also looking forward to making a good impression, not only to the people on the show, but to the world who will be watching. That was something current Married at First Sight stars Tristan Thompson and Mia Bally weren’t able to do, and Rashawn had a lot to say about not wanting to end up like them.
“I think that just their relationship, from her having the rumored background of the stalking and then him and his controlling and loudness, it’s a very toxic relationship,” she said. But I think that in some areas it represents the reality of you needing to make sure you know who you’re married to, but then also too, learning how to work through your problems.”
But she hopes to have a better experience looking for love, and send a much more positive message during her time on Honeymoon Island.
“I want people to know that there is power in going into situations as a complete person,” she said. “I think there’s this popular saying that we’re always looking for our other half, especially women. It’s not always intentional, but I think women are always portrayed as this weak person who’s looking for a king to save her. However, I’m a complete individual, complete woman who’s confident in herself, understands that she’s not perfect, but that she is a perfect representation of a Black woman who deserves to be happy. I relate to women. I don’t have a fairy tale relationship background, but I have a lot of fears that I get to overcome on the show, and I hope people get to kind of be inspired by my story and my journey.”
