A former Love Is Blind competitor is suing the show’s creators for sexual assault, false imprisonment, and negligence.
Tran Dang, who shot Season 5 of the Netflix programme but did not make the final cut, is suing for $1 million (£816,993) in damages, claiming he suffered ‘severe emotional distress, agony, mental anguish, and suffering.’
Dang alleges that her former fiancé and fellow participant Thomas Smith, who also does not appear in the episodes, sexually attacked her on set, but the production company Kinetic did not interfere.
According to court documents acquired by People, Kinetic is also suing production firm Delirium TV over the event, claiming that it ‘delegated responsibility for filming the relevant season of Love Is Blind’.
Dang claims she was dismissed by producers when she informed them she had been assaulted by Smith. Documents obtained by TMZ state that he incessantly groped’ her, revealed his naked body, and ‘forcibly and repeatedly made sexual contact’ with her.
She is also suing the producers for wrongful imprisonment, saying she was forced to stay on-call in her hotel room, rendering her ‘unable to exercise her will in travelling wherever she was lawfully permitted to go.’
In response to the allegations Love Is Blind creator and Kinetic CEO Chris Coelen told People: ‘If anybody ever came to us and said they felt unsafe in any way, we would immediately remove them from the experiment and talk to them, and try to get to the bottom of it.’
‘Unfortunately, in this case, that kind of sentiment was never addressed to us in any way, nor was any alleged wrongdoing brought to our attention ever.’
He also labelled the false confinement accusations “preposterous,” noting that participants are always free to leave the performance.
In a joint statement shared with the media, Kinetic Content and Delirium TV both disputed the claims.
It said: ‘We support and stand with victims of sexual assault, but Ms. Dang’s claims against the producers are meritless.
‘We document the independent choices of adults who volunteer to participate in a social experiment. Their journey is not scripted, nor is it filmed around the clock.
‘We have no knowledge or control over what occurs in private living spaces when not filming, and participants may choose to end their journey at any time.
‘We take any and all concerns of our participants seriously and prioritise their well-being.
‘Obviously, we cannot address undisclosed concerns, and throughout the time that Ms. Dang was involved in the production of Love is Blind, she never informed the producers of any alleged wrongdoing of any kind. Nor did she choose to end her participation in the experiment.
‘Instead, Ms. Dang continued in the experiment for weeks after the time her lawyers now claim an incident occurred.
‘We deny and will vigorously defend the allegations against us.