Who Is AJ Vollmoeller? 5 Facts About The Married At First Sight Star
He has said his parents inspired him to go on the show.
Instagram AJ Vollmoeller and Stephanie Sersen have been considered one of the most stable couples on "Married at First Sight"—the most recent episode of the show cast doubt on that standing, specifically through Vollmoeller’s behavior.
Vollmoeller is known for his short fuse, but on this episode, he showed a negative and vulgar side that created a “weird vibe.”
He made crass comments that being with the other couples meant “There is a big orgy here!” among others. Costar Kristine Killingsworth said, “AJ makes everyone feel uncomfortable.”
It got to be too much even for his wife, who said she was too tired to hang with the group and left the room.
Vollmoeller told the others why he joined the show. “One night, I came home drunk. I was like tonight would be a great night for a wife. I signed up for it like, ‘Okay, I’m drunk and horny and a wife sounds good!’”
This drunken claim is inconsistent with what Vollmoeller has said before about why he went on "Married at First Sight." It also does not match up with the image he has otherwise projected as a professional. He has blamed the poor reflection on his behavior on production, as seen in his reactions to clips of himself taking out his frustrations on his wife.
“I was wondering what bad they were going to try and pull out,” he said. “For me, seeing something that just looks like mass chaos to me, this is just something that’s disgusting, to be honest. The frustration is a lot of the outside things to do with the production aspect.”
Who is AJ Vollmoeller? Below are details about the New York native and his life before the show.
1. He’s from Flanders, New York.
Flanders is on Long Island, on the Great Peconic Bay. It’s about a two-hour drive from New York City. Flanders is a small town of under 5,000 people. The town is also home to the Big Duck, an iconic, historic building in exactly the shape after which it’s named.
Vollmoeller is a 1999 graduate of Riverhead High School. He went to college at the University of New Haven, then went on to work in Orlando, Florida for 10 years.
2. He’s the president and CEO of a staffing and recruiting agency.
Vollmoeller has had talent acquisition positions for over 15 years; most recently, he was the head of talent acquisition at GSD Company. He has been working on his own agency, Future Force Talent Connection, for six years. It’s based in New York City, Philadelphia and Orlando.
The company is specific to small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as start-ups, and aids in finding the best talent for those businesses.
Vollmoeller’s focus has been almost solely on his career for nearly two decades—climbing the ladder can be lonely work.
Married life, however, has only added to his workload. That is, his marriage through a reality show has proven to be very demanding. His wife told PopCulture.com that their schedules were a major obstacle in building their relationship.
“Our biggest challenge was time management,” Sersen said, “specifically with balancing our demanding careers with the filming schedules. We would work 50-hour weeks, and film after work 40-plus hours a week.”
3. He’s not a fan of online dating.
He’s swiped left on the popular modern trend of dating sites and apps.
“I don’t like online dating,” he said on the show. “There’s not enough substance to it. I want a better story to tell the grandkids than we met through a computer algorithm.
Vollmoeller is not completely averse to dating sites, however, as he has used them to describe himself in business.
“I do recruiting all day, every day. I’m sifting through candidates, picking the best ones. In my elevator pitch, I say I’m the match.com for recruiting.”
4. It’s been over six years since he was last in love.
Vollmoeller admitted on "Married at First Sight: Unfiltered" that it has been years since he was in a relationship. The last time he’d been in love was “six or seven years.”
“And I hadn’t even dated in that time, so it wasn’t even like I was on that path or had feelings or 'heavy like' for somebody. I completely forgot what that feeling was like, and it's just the most amazing thing ever," he said of his budding relationship with Sersen after about a month of marriage.
Although he gave a different reason for going on the show in the recent episode, Vollmoeller said originally a friend had recommended that he participate in the social experiment. Vollmoeller may not like conventional dating, nor dating apps, but when he looked into "Married at First Sight," he was quickly convinced. “I’d be stupid not to go for it,” he said. “I’d have a panel of experts waiting to help me out with this — experts at the highest level. I was very specific in what I wanted [in a wife].”
“I truly believed in the process from the very beginning. I had complete faith they would find somebody perfect for me,” he said.
5. His parents were a source of inspiration for going on the show.
Vollmoeller’s parents met under completely different circumstances than Vollmoeller and Sersen.
They are a rare find in the current day: high school sweethearts that are still together decades later. They recently celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary.
Unlike his parents, who have been together since they were teenagers, Vollmoeller decided to take a chance on a complete stranger at 37. Regardless, he wanted to find that same happiness.
Sersen was also looking for a relationship like that of her parents when she came aboard "Married at First Sight." They have been married for 30 years. She specifically wanted someone who would treat her the way her father treats her mother.
When Vollmoeller first told his parents that he was going on the show, they were not so sure. Eventually, however, they supported him.
Alison Cerri is a writer who covers astrology, pop culture and relationship topics.