1 of 1 Promotional image for “Blind Wedding” Photo: Disclosure Promotional image for “Blind Wedding” Photo: Disclosure
A participant in the fifth season of the American reality show “Blind Wedding” has sued the producers responsible for the show. She says she was sexually assaulted during filming and that the production team recorded the moment but did nothing to stop the attack, according to the website Deadline.
The lawsuit is filed by Tran Dang. In addition to negligence in the mistreatment, she accuses Kinetic Content and Delirium TV of false imprisonment.
In the lawsuit, she claims she was abused by another contestant, Thomas Smith, who became her fiancé during production. On the show, strangers chat and often ask their partners to marry them before they see each other for the first time.
Dang says the abuse took place in Mexico in May. “Smith forcibly groped her without Ms. Dang’s consent, exposed her nudity, and repeatedly engaged in sexual contact despite her direct objections,” the lawsuit states.
“Due to the 24hour monitoring of participants, it is likely that most, if not all, of these traumatic events were recorded.”
According to her, production ignored her allegations. A production assistant even said it was her fault for not speaking to Smith effectively or taking the relationship seriously.
She also states that during the recording she was in prison for two weeks, with no cell phone and no way to communicate with the world. Dang left the recordings after the abuse. She and Smith were left out of the season.
The show’s creator, Chris Coelen, denied the allegations to People magazine.
“If someone 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 find out the truth,” he said. “Unfortunately, in this case, we were not made aware of this type of feeling in any way, nor were we informed of anything incorrect at any time.”
He also stated that Dang’s claims were “absurd” since contestants could leave and exit the production at will.
This is not the first accusation against the program. In 2022, season two contestant Jeremy Hartwell sued video platform Netflix for “inhumane working conditions.” In addition to him, colleagues from the same season, Nick Thompson and Danielle Ruhl, also said that they had not received any support for mental health problems.