Married At First Sight’s Stacey Hampton defends her Rebels bikie ex

Married At First Sight’s Stacey Hampton has publicly defended her ex-fiance, Rebels Adelaide boss Shane Michael Smith, who is the father of her two sons.

Speaking to Who magazine this week, the 26-year-old lavished praise on the bikie and urged society not to judge him on his criminal past.

‘He’s honestly the greatest person and I think he’s ashamed of his past,’ she gushed.

‘I met him when I was really young, 19, through mutual friends and I wasn’t aware of his lifestyle but I feel for him so quickly,’ she continued.

‘At the time, I didn’t realise he actually had charges from ages ago that had come up – assault charges.’

Smith was convicted of bashing two nightclub bouncers in 2017.

The blonde bombshell dated the Rebels’ Adelaide president, 37, until they split in July 2017.

Stacey, 26, was branded the ‘bride from hell’ after she snubbed ‘husband’ Michael Goonan on Married At First Sight, saying he was ‘not what I usually go for’.

Smith, a heavily tattooed ‘fitness trainer’, fits Stacey’s type perfectly, as she admits to being attracted to ‘masculine’ men with tattoos. 

She is equally as inked-up as Smith, with a huge intricate design stretching across her stomach and right thigh as a tribute to her late brother.

The former couple share sons Kruz, two, and Kosta, four, who appeared on MAFS with Stacey.

Stacey, who is 11 years younger than Smith, said they met when she was ‘very young’.

‘We met when I was very young, fell in love quickly and then tried to make it work for the kids,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.

‘It was a civil break-up. He’s an amazing dad and I have no regrets.’ 

One of many family photos on Smith’s social media shows the bikie leader in his Rebels colours as Stacey cradles Kosta during their time together. 

‘That’s Stacie (sic) Hampton my wife,’ he wrote alongside two heart emojis, when friends complimented his glamorous partner.

Smith also has Stacey’s name tattooed on his hand along with Kosta’s name and birth date – January 25, 2016.

In February 2019, Smith was convicted and fined $3,500 for assaulting two bouncers outside a nightclub in Bendigo on August 6, 2017.  

He narrowly avoided jail after a magistrate dismissed an affray charge because the savage beatings weren’t deemed to be evoking of terror in bystanders.

Bendigo Magistrates’ Court heard Smith was at the Universal club in the northern Victorian town with several other Rebels.

Festivities to commemorate the 2008 car crash death of member Bruno Carlo spilled out of the gang’s clubhouse about 11.30pm. 

A fight began between the six bikies and other revellers on the dance floor after an altercation in the smokers area and security tried to intervene.

The court heard Smith threw punches at patrons and security, then ‘king hit’ a bouncer in the face, punched his head and torso and kicked him as he lay on the ground.

The melee left a patron unconscious in the local hospital’s intensive care unit for nine hours, and another combatant with a broken jaw.

The court heard Smith, who was one of two bikies charged over the brawl, had committed previous violent crimes.

He was originally slapped with 10 charges but police dropped seven of them. 

Magistrate Michael King then dismissed the affray charge because the attacks ‘would not have terrified a reasonable onlooker’.

He also said there was ‘no community interest’ in jailing Smith before he received treatment for his anger issues. 

Meanwhile, Stacey was less impressed with millionaire businessman Michael Goonan, 28, whom she ‘married’ on Married At First Sight, but warmed up to him during the couple’s honeymoon.