The pairing of Chris Williams and Paige Banks on season 12 of Married at First Sight has been highly criticized by fans of the show. Paige started the show with an eagerness to find her idea of the perfect man: someone religious, loyal, and with an ambition that could match her own. She was matched with Chris Williams, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur and claimed he was a “restaurant owner”. We later learned that the restaurant was a Subway, and Chris was dubbed the youngest Subway franchise owner in Atlanta. Not long after their wedding day, Chris revealed that he learned that he was expecting a baby with ex-fiancee Mercedes Myrick. Since then, there have been many rumors about Chris Williams. We did some digging… ⛏️
Subway
Chris opened his Subway location in October 2019 with help from other investors. SoapDirt obtained documents that were served to Chris from Subway corporate in November 2019, one month after opening, stating that Chris had failed to meet compliance for the following requirements:
- Pest Control
- Product Quality
- Product Preparation
- Cleanliness Interior & Exterior
- Equipment
- Decor, Design, Signage
The Georgia Department of Labor sent a Final Notice of Intent to File a Tax Lien to Ashland Ave LLC. This is the name Chris Williams’ Subway is registered under. The final notice was mailed out on January 22, 2020 and went unanswered. By March 2020, the doors to Chris’s Subway had closed for good. In February 2021, a Reddit user posted a photo of the Subway being liquidated and equipment available for free pickup on the side of the road.
When asked for more details, the user wrote, “Anything in the store that was not bolted down was put outside for people to take. This included tables and chairs, storage shelves, a POS system, a 2k soda cooler, etc. What you see [in the photo] is all that was left. There is no sandwich shop opening up there. The food inside has been there since he walked out in March.”
A former employee also spoke about about her treatment from Chris Williams during the time that she worked at his Subway location. She tweeted that Chris yelled at staff members, did not show up to manage the location for weeks at a time, left the restaurant understaffed causing employees to work weeks without a day off, and did not make one payment after the initial franchise agreement.
By the time Married at First Sight began filming, Chris’s Subway had been closed for five months. Now, onto the largest of the rumors about Chris Williams…
Ex-Fiancé Mercedes Myrick
The timeline between the alleged breakup between Chris and his ex-fiancé and the start of the MAFS casting process has been messy, to say the least. Here is what we know about Lifetime’s casting timeline for season 12:
- June 10, 2020: Final week of MAFS casting
- August 28-29, 2020: Weddings
- October 31, 2020: Decision Day
MAFSFan, an Instagram account dedicated to dishing dirt on all things MAFS, found posts from alleged family members of Chris and Mercedes that indicate that they may have been together throughout the casting process.
There is also a video on Youtube documenting the couple’s engagement.
Although we don’t know exactly when (or if) the couple split, there is further proof that they were still in a relationship after Married at First Sight began filming.
Much of this is hinted during the season after Chris states he might still be in love with his ex, and even brings the two to meet and have a conversation together. The other bombshell dropped during this season is that Mercedes is pregnant with Chris’s baby. On March 7, 2021, Chris announced that Mercedes had tragically suffered a miscarriage the previous October.
Although much of this information is speculation, it seems that Married at First Sight did not portray the full truth about Chris Williams. Fans are hopeful that the vetting process during casting will be more thorough for future seasons of Married at First Sight, as most feel sorry for Paige and believe that this season feels inauthentic. Can you blame them? 🤷♀️
So this was “entrepreneur” Chris’s way of making $ and Mercedes went along with it?
I guess so! 🤷🏼♀️ I wonder if she was deceived as well?
I wonder if she was really pregnant. It appears we have a couple of con artists here.
I also wonder if Chris has any ties to anyone connected with the MAFS production. That would explain how zero research on his background seems to have been neglected.
And to be honest, considering the way Paige is acting as the show moves on, I have wondered if she too is involved in deceiving viewers. Did production hire them for ratings ?
The two of them have certainly made the “experts” look like idiots.