Couples Therapy viewers have criticised a husband who flew to Italy alone on his birthday because his wife of 23 years got too bogged down in planning his dream orgy.
Annie and Mau, from Philadelphia, featured in the Showtime reality show, which sees four real life couples air their relationship woes to therapist Dr. Orna Guralnik and premiered in the UK on BBC2 last night.
The pair opened up about a difficult birthday a couple of years ago, when Mau cancelled the extravagant sex party his wife had organised for him because it had been too meticulously planned.
Mau said he wanted ‘zero responsibility’ and to have as much ‘spectacular, enthusiastic and genuine’ sex as he wanted, without putting in ‘any work on his part’.
And so instead of enjoying the party, flew abroad to spend his birthday alone.
Annie and Mau (pictured), from the US, featured in the Showtime reality show, which sees four real life couples air their relationship woes to therapist Dr. Orna Guralnik and premiered in the UK on BBC2 last night
‘He has a lot of birthday stuff, always has,’ explained Annie. ‘I have been unsuccessful for 20 years and two years ago I pulled out all the stops.
‘I had planned this huge weekend. I was trying so hard, but in my focus on the weekend I had been not attentive during the week leading up to it.
‘He said to me that I was barking up the wrong tree and I wasn’t listening and wasn’t getting it. I was like “Shh just wait till the weekend” and he said, “Cancel everything, I’m not going with you. I don’t want this and by the way, where is my passport?” and he went to Italy.’
Viewers were shocked at the admission, with one joking the husband deserves ‘overnight infamy’ while a therapist said that working with clients like Mau was ‘exhausting’.
Annie (pictured) opened up about a difficult birthday of Mau’s a couple of years ago, when he cancelled the extravagant sex party she had organised because it had been too meticulously planned
‘Mau’s disappointed, not devastated, because his wife didn’t arrange his birthday orgy exactly the way he imagined it. Respect to therapist. How do you keep a straight face?’ wrote one viewer.
Another said: ‘Mau who must surely deserve overnight infamy for his “birthday treat” expectations on #couplestherapy tonight.’
‘Oh my gosh, what the hell, Mau?’ wrote a third.
Another said: ‘I’ve worked with so many clients like Mau on #couplestherapy and they were all exhausting.’
Explaining why he was so disappointed by the proposed birthday orgy, Mau told Dr. Orna that he wanted spontaneous, impassioned sex, which had been ruined by the excessive planning ahead of time.
Viewers were shocked at the admission, with one joking the husband deserves ‘overnight infamy’ while a therapist said that working with clients like Mau was ‘exhausting’
‘I don’t have complicated needs,’ he said. ‘I am utterly transparent and completely communicative about what I want and am also totally consistent. I am the easiest person to deal with.
‘All I want is – I’m trying to think of how to say this so it doesn’t sound terrible – what I want is to have zero responsibility. To have all the sex I want without any work on my part, zero thinking about it and it has to be spectacular and enthusiastic and genuine.
‘With the birthday for example, she was putting in all this effort. The things she was doing are the things she could imagine I would want if she was never paying attention.’
Explaining why he was so disappointed with his birthday orgy, Mau told Dr. Orna (pictured) that he wanted spontaneous, impassioned sex, which had been ruined by the excessive planning ahead of time
The sex party, which included ‘costumes, a dominatrix and a threesome’ hadn’t been a surprise to Mau because Annie had been ‘so enthusiastic, she couldn’t keep it to herself.’
‘You heard these potential exciting events as?’, asked Dr. Orna to which Mau responded: ‘I didn’t hear them as anything. I just observed you’re [Annie] doing what you want to do for me instead of what I want you to do for me’.
Dr. Orna pressed on, asking whether Annie had been playing our her own sexual fantasies rather than those of Mau.
‘Not exactly,’ he explained. ‘They were like her description of what mine were if you’ve never listened to me.’
Annie felt that the party would have been more well received had it been a ‘random Saturday’ and not his birthday because there was too much pressure to enjoy himself – adding that ‘every year it’s a trap’.
Annie then made made the point that it sounded as if Mau wanted a maternal figure, an observation the therapist called ‘profound’
But Mau disagreed that his wife’s point was at all astute, arguing: ‘What is profound about that? Drawing that parallel, i’m sure if you open up one of these books it’s on one of the first f**** pages’
Mau went on venting his frustrations: ‘This is it, this is the big hurrah? This is what I’ve [got after] 25 years of being Mr Amazing, this was it? Then no thanks. I’m just not interested.
Annie then made made the point that it sounded as if Mau wanted a maternal figure, an observation the therapist called ‘profound’.
But Mau disagreed, arguing: ‘What is profound about that? Drawing that parallel, I’m sure if you open up one of these books it’s on one of the first f**** pages.’
After Dr. Orna called out Mau on so quickly disregarding his wife’s point, she asked why it was so ‘devastating’ that she had not planned his birthday in the exact way he likes.
However Mau decided to argue with the therapist about the meaning of the word devastating – insisting he simply felt ‘disappointed’ with the outcome of his birthday.
The couple will appear throughout the series, and it’s not yet clear whether they managed to resolve their differences with therapy.
Couples Therapy is available on BBC iPlayer
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