This is getting real ugly, real fast. As previously reported, Jessica Castro filed a protection order against Ryan De Nino, the man she met and married within hours on A&E’s Married at First Sight, and as those court papers indicate, Castro learned quickly just how violent her new husband could be.
Castro, 30, a law firm receptionist from Queens, N.Y., initially took part in Season 2 of Married at First Sight after a broken engagement and cheating left her feeling unlucky in love. As it turns out, Castro was in for a much ruder awakening by her rebound suitor. In March, Staten Island business owner De Nino, 29, vowed to kill her and her family. “I will break you into f–king pieces,” a petition filed in Queens Family Court quoted her groom as saying. “I will break your dad into pieces. I will make your whole family disappear — and your f—ing dog-ass sister’s boyfriend.”
Six months after their wedding, while taping a Married at First Sight reunion show, De Nino was even more vocal about his murder plot. “She’s f–king dead. When I get back to Brooklyn, she’s f–king dead, this girl,” De Nino said, while wearing a live mic. (Following the cast member’s threat, the show’s producers provided Castro with a security team.)
According to court documents obtained by the New York Post, Castro ended things with De Nino in February after she caught him cheating on her on Valentine’s Day. De Nino — who Instagrammed Saturday that he was “disgusted” to hear of his wife’s filing — faces harassment, menacing, and stalking charges, and has been ordered to stay away from Castro until their July 13 hearing.
Castro’s lawyer, celebrity divorce attorney Marc Rapaport, said his client is “considering all her legal options including potential claims against A&E.”
In a statement Monday, Kinetic Content, the production company behind Married at First Sight, could not comment on the specifics of the couple’s dispute, but told Us Weekly after-care is provided to all contestants. “The experts on our show have the best of intentions and highest hopes for success for each couple. After undergoing extensive background and psychological checks by third parties, couples agree to be legally married on our show,” their statement read. “We document their journey for six weeks after their wedding, but we can’t control how they behave, or govern their actions after production.”
