Love may be blind, but it's not stupid.
According to court documents obtained by E! News, Jeremy Hartwell, who appeared as a contestant on the second season of Love is Blind, filed a lawsuit against the hit Netflix show, the production company Kinetic Content and the casting company Delirium TV, alleging that the cast was placed in "inhumane" working conditions during the filming of the show.
In the lawsuit, which was filed July 13, Hartwell alleged that cast members were only regularly given "alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, energy drinks and mixers. Hydrating drinks such as water were strictly limited to the cast during the day."
"The combination of sleep deprivation, isolation, lack of food, and an excess of alcohol all either required," the lawsuit reads, "enabled or encouraged by defendants contributed to inhumane working conditions and altered mental state for the cast."
Hartwell—who works as a director at a mortgage company in Chicago—alleged in the suit that cast members had their phones taken away upon their arrival, leaving them "isolated" with no "ability to contact family, friends and other persons outside of production."
The reality star also stated in the lawsuit that producers of the show "intentionally underpaid the cast members," sharing that they were paid a flat rate of $1,000 per week—despite working up to 20 hours per day, seven days per week. According to the complaint, their pay came out to $7.14 per hour, which was well under the minimum wage in Los Angeles County of $15 per hour.
In response, Kinetic Content tells E! News that Hartwell's journey "ended early after he failed to develop a significant connection with any other participant." The company continued, "While we will not speculate as to his motives for filing the lawsuit, there is absolutely no merit to Mr. Hartwell's allegations, and we will vigorously defend against his claims."
E! News has reached out to Netflix and Delirium TV and has not yet heard back.
In a press release obtained by E! News, Hartwell's attorney, Chantal Payton, addressed the matter further, saying that her client and other cast members' decision-making was altered due to the lack of food, water and sleep.
"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,'" she said. "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."
This post was updated on July 14, 2022, at 1:28 p.m. PT with Kinetic's statement.