As Luke Cuccurullo and Kate Sisk try to weather the ups and downs of the early days of their marriage, the Married at First Sight husband questioned whether the expert's pairing was a dud in the end.

Prior to Tuesday's all-new episode of the Lifetime reality show, produced by Kinetic Content and airing at a special time of 10 p.m. ET, Luke opened up to PopCulture.com about the difficulties he and Kate faced as they tried to cope with the struggles that came with marrying a stranger.

"Our biggest challenge initially was physical attraction, but as the show went on, I questioned if we were a good match," Luke admitted.

"I told the experts during the matchmaking special that smoking was a dealbreaker for me — Kate smokes," he continued, adding of the drama surrounding the comments he made about her drinking to producers, "I also am not a big fan of drinking, and Kate drank more than I was comfortable with."

Luke added that while Kate "did make an effort to stop both of those things, but there's only so much you can expect of a person to change longterm."

The Philadelphia-based couple has struggled with their relationship from the start, when after a delayed first kiss, Luke told his new wife the physical gesture had left him feeling "repulsed" and "dead inside."

What resulted was a tense meeting with Pastor Cal Roberson, in which the expert threatened to kick Luke off of the show if he continued with "vile" and "abusive" behavior.

"I was not expecting this conversation at all!" Luke told PopCulture of his reaction to the confrontation. "Felt out of left field, and you could see it all over my face, and the way I stumbled through that conversation."

Looking back, Luke confessed he thinks Pastor Cal was "somewhat overreacting."

"During our conversation, I realized that he didn't know the full story, so I understood where he was coming from," he told PopCulture. "Either way, my choice of words to Kate was poor, and I knew that I needed to make it right to her."

Moving forward from that meeting, Luke explained he had a totally new perspective on their marriage.

"I realized I needed to communicate more clearly with Kate from that moment going forward," he said. "We forget that although we are a few weeks into a marriage, there are still a ton of unknowns and I can’t expect her to be able to read my face, my expressions, or know my thoughts when she hardly knows me. Being married doesn’t suddenly make us experts in each other."

Viewers will have to tune in to see what choice the couple makes on Decision Day, but as for the entire journey, Luke told PopCulture that he has walked away with a valuable lesson in communication, calling it "an art that needs to be finessed accordingly and constantly."

Married at First Sight (produced by Kinetic Content) airs Tuesday, March 5 at 10 p.m. ET on Lifetime.

Photo credit: Lifetime