'Love Is Blind' stars accuse producers of food and sleep deprivation, claim they slept with cockroaches
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A number of previous 'Love Is Blind' participants have come out to accuse producers of "emotional warfare" and horrible living conditions behind the scenes. Speaking to Insider about the production's troubling culture, which formerly included squalid sleeping quarters.
The Netflix original reality program 'Love Is Blind' has yet to fully answer its eponymous question after four seasons. However, according to a recent Insider report, producers have managed to make many candidates regret signing up for the show in the first place. Several former cast members of the Netflix reality program told Insider that their experience on the show was marked by a lack of food, water, sleep, an excessive amount of booze, and "emotional warfare" from producers. Another former cast member told Business Insider that they were frequently deprived of food and sleep during their 20-hour work days and received little to no emotional support from producers, despite the show's high stakes.
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'The sleep deprivation was real'
According to Insider's explosive story, the work culture during production was simply toxic, with cast members being compelled to film up to 20 hours a day on a daily basis. Owing to an unsustainable work schedule they were left exhausted, a condition exacerbated by the production's incessant pushing of alcohol.
"The sleep deprivation was real," Danielle Drouin, who starred in the first season of the show, said. "I feel like they do it on purpose because they're trying to break you. They want you on your edge."
When female participants were permitted to sleep during Season 1, they withdrew to a solitary single-room caravan fitted with bunk beds. Because she was concerned about the sturdiness of the bunks, one season one cast member recounted sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Cockroaches were also spotted by several of the women. "There was no privacy, it was cold, it wasn't comfortable," Danielle Drouin went on to say.
After several complaints, the caravan accommodations were replaced with hotel rooms, while production assistants were stationed in the halls to prevent cast members from leaving their rooms during the designated sleeping hours.
"They would run out of food," cast member Danielle Ruhl claimed. "I remember every time we’d get to the freaking kitchen, there’d be like one hard-boiled egg, and it was like a fight to see who could actually get the stuff."
'It literally ruins lives'
Between the Netflix debacle and the recent completion of Season 4, 'Love is Blind' has been on fans' minds. According to a recent lawsuit filed by a contestant from Season 2 and many former cast members who talked to Insider, there is a dark side to the program that fans don't see.
'Love Is Blind' star Briana Holmes had quit the show. The 20-hour filming days and the pressure to be married in a few weeks were too much for her, and she wasn't alone. Even if the shooting was too much for a contestant, there remained the possibility of a $50,000 fine if they departed without producer clearance. "It's a lot," remarked Season 1 contestant Brianna. "None of it was scripted. Everything you see is real. These are people’s real lives and real emotions."
However, the show's high stakes have a long-term influence on its contestants, even after the episode has aired on Netflix. "You thrust us into this situation without any support, and everything’s amplified," Season 2 Nick Thompson stated. "It literally ruins lives."
Nick had married Danielle Ruhl during Season 2, who had panic episodes and suicidal thoughts while shooting. She said that after taping the episode, she went to trauma counseling. "I don’t think that I’ve felt myself since before filming," she stated.
These "inhumane working conditions" were mentioned in a complaint filed in July by Season 2 contestant Jeremy Hartwell against Netflix and the show's production firm, Kinetic Content. According to the lawsuit, the contestants were paid $7.14 per hour, or roughly half of California's minimum wage, because they often worked up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week. According to Jeremy's attorney, Chantal Payton, the producers "intentionally underpaid the cast members, deprived them of food, water, and sleep, plied them with booze, and cut off their access to personal contacts and most of the outside world. This made cast members hungry for social connections and altered their emotions and decision-making."
Some contestants stated they sought emotional help from producers both during and after the event but to no effect. Cast members also claimed that producers would exploit sensitive information gathered during one-on-one interviews to "elicit whatever emotional response they wanted," describing the experience as "emotional warfare."
Danielle Ruhl earlier admitted to producers that she had struggled with her weight in the past, which was subsequently brought up during her on-camera interviews. “They would use these things to kind of cut you down day over day,” she added. “The interviews were horrible.” She went on to say that producers encouraged her to stay on the show even though she was having a panic attack and voiced concern that the filming was exacerbating her anxiety. “I kept telling them, ‘I don’t trust myself,'” she continued. “‘I’ve tried committing suicide before. I’m having suicidal thoughts. I don’t think I can continue in this.'"
While some couples discovered love on the show, some cast members said it was difficult for them to return to their daily lives after filming the show. A Season 1 cast member resigned from her job because it reminded her of her bad experience on the show. She also received hate mail online as a result of the way she was represented on the show.