Love Is Blind contestant sues Netflix show with depriving cast of food, water, and sleep claims

 A contestant from Love Is Blind season two is suing the Netflix show with claims  of food, water, and sleep deprivation while providing an ‘excess of alcohol.’

Jeremy Hartwell has filed a lawsuit against Netflix and the producers as he made several accusations about how the show had treated cast members.

The 36-year-old entrepreneur’s Los Angeles based lawyer Chantal Payton of Payton Employment Law, PC released a statement on Wednesday.

It read: ‘They 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. 

Taking a stand: A contestant from Love Is Blind named Jeremy Hartwell (pictured) season two is suing the Netflix show with claims of food, water, and sleep deprivation while providing an ‘excess of alcohol’

‘This made cast members hungry for social connections and altered their emotions and decision-making.’

The statement also had claims that contestants would be fined heavily if they opted to leave the show. 

It read: ‘The contracts required contestants to agree that if they left the show before filming was done, they would be penalized by being required to pay $50,000 in “liquidated damages.” 

‘With that being 50 times what some of the cast members would earn during the entire time that they worked, this certainly had the potential to instill fear in the cast and enable production to exert even further control.’

The 36-year-old entrepreneur’s Los Angeles based lawyer Chantal Payton of Payton Employment Law, PC released a statement on Wednesday which read: ‘They 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’

According to Hartwell’s legal team the lawsuit serves as ‘a proposed class action on behalf of all participants in Love Is Blind and other non-scripted productions’ created by Kinetic Content from 2018 to 2022.

According to court documents obtained by UsWeekly, Hartwell alleged that ‘the only drinks that [the show] regularly provided to the cast were alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, energy drinks and mixers.’

READ RELATED: 4 Best Snacks for Your Heart, Say Dietitians

And he went on to claim that ‘hydrating drinks such as water were strictly limited to the cast during the day.’

Hartwell went on to suggest that Love Is Blind ‘contributed to inhumane working conditions and altered mental state for the cast’ which he says was through a ‘combination of sleep deprivation, isolation, lack of food and an excess of alcohol all either required, enabled or encouraged.’

He went on to claim that contestants were not allowed to contact friends or family for hours at a time.

According to court documents obtained by UsWeekly , Hartwell alleged that ‘the only drinks that [the show] regularly provided to the cast were alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, energy drinks and mixers’

His lawyer alleged that ‘the exploitative working conditions served to control the participants’ conduct and elicited irrational behavior for entertainment value in the final project.’

The salary earned by the contestants is also at the center of the lawsuit as it is claimed that contestants earned $1,000 per week and up to $8,000 for the length of production which they claim is less than minimum age for the number of hours worked.

The documents read: ‘Defendants failed and continue to fail to compensate Class Members and Aggrieved Employees for all hours worked, including minimum wage and overtime hours, as a result of maintaining a practice of requiring Class Members and Aggrieved Employees to work up to twenty (20) hour days, seven days per week, while paying them a flat amount of $1,000.00 per filming week.

‘Resultantly, these workers were effectively [paid] as little $7.14 per hour which is less than half of the applicable minimum wage rate of $15.00 per hour, less than one-third of the minimum overtime rate of $22.50 per hour, and less than one-fourth of the minimum double-time rate of $30.00 per hour pursuant to the applicable Los Angeles City and County minimum wage ordinances’

Toast: The hit Netflix series follows 30 men and women as they built connections in different pods without ever seeing each other; during that speed dating-process, the contestants were allowed to propose to each other whenever they chose

The hit Netflix  series follows 30 men and women as they built connections in different pods without ever seeing each other; during that speed dating-process, the contestants were allowed to propose to each other whenever they chose.

Once couples became engaged, they were allowed to meet for the first time, resulting in a romantic getaway to Mexico, moving into their own apartment together and meeting each other’s families ahead of their wedding in days. 

The season concludes with a wedding and the couples must choose at the altar whether or not to go through with the marriage. 

Hartwell was among the 30 cast selected for season two but failed to get engaged and was not featured on the show after the group left the pods. 

Quite the concept: Once couples became engaged, they were allowed to meet for the first time, resulting in a romantic getaway to Mexico , moving into their own apartment together and meeting each other’s families ahead of their wedding in days