Former Love is Blind contestant Jeremy Hartwell has sued Netflix and the Kinetix Content production company after experiencing “inhumane working conditions” while filming.
However, the show faced many legal allegations from its past contestants regarding work exploitation, negligence, and sexual assault. This included the Season 5 cast member Tran Dang, Season 2’s Nick Thompson, Danielle Ruhl, and Briana Holmes.
Love is Blind contestant filed a class action lawsuit for Love Is Blind
Jeremy Hartwell joined the show as a 36-year-old single director and entrepreneur with a background in law. Unfortunately for Jeremy, he wasn’t able to find his ideal match in the pods.
According to many statements from past participants, they had signed up to film the show 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They were expected to fall in love within 20 days and get engaged within 2 weeks. ParticipantBriana Holmeshad to leave mid-season as she had a panic attack working under stress and in a compromised mental health care environment.
Jeremy said the participants were given ‘inhumane working conditions’, and it took him several weeks to recover from the sleep deprivation he faced while filming Love Is Blind.
The reality star expressed that he wasdeprived of social connectionwhile filming. He said, “This made cast members hungry for social connections and altered their emotions and decision-making.”
In his lawsuit, Harwell also claimed that, although each person appearing on the dating reality show was offered a $1,000 weekly stipend, in real terms that money translated to about $7.14 an hour, which is below California’s $15 minimum wage (where pod filming took place).
“There was nothing in the contract that could have prepared anybody for the experience we were put through,” Hartwell later told the press. It’s reported that the contracts state any cast members who drop out of the show without permission from producers have to pay $50,000 in damages to Kinetic Content and that couples must attend their wedding – even if they didn’t want to get married.
Areesha is a former Reality TV/Entertainment Writer at Dexerto. Previously, she worked with the Reality TV vertical at Collider. She covers news, features and evergreen articles.
