It's just getting harder and harder to meet the love of your life on a pressure-packed reality dating show.
Renee Poche, a Texas-based veterinarian and season 5 contestant on Netflix's Love Is Blind, is suing the streaming company, along with production company Delirium TV for $4 million in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging "unlawful employment practices," "unfair competition," and "intentional infliction of emotional distress."
Poche claims she was flown out to the Love Is Blind production in April 2022, stripped of her mobile phone, passport and driver’s license, and forcibly sequestered in hotel room, only able to leave under the watchful eye of a Delirium staff companion.
Further, she claims she was unwittingly paired on the reality romance show with Carter Wall, who she describes as violent, broke, and drug-and alcohol-addicted.
"My experience on Love is Blind was traumatic," Poche said in a statement provided to numerous press outlets. "I felt like a prisoner and had no support when I let Delirium know that I didn't feel safe. I tried to deal with these emotions over time, and eventually felt like I needed to share what had happened. I felt it was only right to let others know the truth of what all of the cast mates had to endure."
Penske showbiz trade Variety was the first to report on the lawsuit.
Digging deeper, however, Poche's suit is a response to breach-of-contract penalties being threatened upon her by Delirium, also totaling $4 million, allegedly the result of Poche explaining to online media outlet Popsugar in October the reason her onscreen romance with Wall was cut from season 5 of Love Is Blind.
Poche told the pub that her fling with Wall lasted all the way to the show's virtual "alter" in Mexico. But she ended up demurring on entering a real-world marriage contract with Wall once she returned with him to Texas.
"Once we got back to Houston and back to the real world, I started noticing things that I kind of ignored or blew off that were red flags I should have picked up on. And eventually I did say 'no' at the altar," Ponce said.
She didn't reveal much more than that until Tuesday, when she filed her suit.
Neither Netflix or Delirium has publicly commented on the matter.
According to Variety, Ponce is being represented by "Hollywood power lawyers" Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos, who are waging what the Penske trade describes as a "much broader war" against the allegedly exploitive practices of the reality TV production industry. For example, the trade said the pair has also been hired by reality star Bethenny Frankel to fight for "basic workplace protections" in the reality production business.
Hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, Love Is Blind season 2 (the first iteration for which Netflix published ratings data for) generated nearly 60 million hours of viewing engagement during its first full week on the platform in February 2022.
In September, however, season 5 peaked at a one-week performance of just 36.2 million viewing hours.
