‘Love Is Blind’ contestants forced to film drunk, denied food, water: lawsuit

A 'Love is Blind' contestant claims that producers were slow to hand out food and water, but alcohol was readily available all the time.

A contestant from the second season of Netflix’s Love is Blind reality series is suing the show over what he claims were “inhumane working conditions.”

Jeremy Hartwell is suing Netflix and production company Kinetic Content, claiming that he and other contestants were forced to work 20-hour days and were denied adequate water and food while being plied with alcohol. He also claims cast members were not paid a fair wage.

In an interview with CNN, Hartwell said cast members were “basically locked in the room” for 24 hours straight when they arrived on set, and snacks and water were only doled out after hours of waiting. However, he said, alcohol was always available and producers encouraged contestants to drink on an empty stomach.

“The combination of sleep deprivation, isolation, lack of food, and an excess of alcohol all either required, enabled or encouraged by defendants contributed to inhumane working conditions and altered mental state for the cast,” Hartwell said in his complaint, which was obtained by People.

“At times, defendants left members of the cast alone for hours at a time with no access to a phone, food, or any other type of contact with the outside world until they were required to return to working on the production.”

Love is Blind contestants, 15 men and 15 women, each play out of their own isolation room and are paired with contestants in other rooms. Through a series of conversations, they figure out if they have a connection with another player and, in some cases, get engaged and even married to another player without having laid eyes on them.

Hartwell says production was heavily involved from the moment contestants boarded their flights to Los Angeles.