Another Love Is Blind alum is taking aim at the hit dating show.
Season 7 cast member Stephen Richardson is suing Netflix, Kinetic Content, and Delirium TV, alleging he and other participants were wrongly classified as independent contractors, not employees. He also said that he and others who appeared on the show were subject to “inhumane working conditions,” E! News reports.
Stephen Richardson from ‘Love Is Blind’ Season 7 sues Netflix
In a class action suit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on September 15, Richardson says that the show’s producers had “complete domination over [participants’] time, schedule, and their ability to eat, drink, and sleep, and communicate with the outside world during the period of employment.” Cast members’ IDs, wallets, phones and credit cards were also taken away so they could not leave the living quarters or set while filming.
Richardson – who got engaged to Monica Davis during the show’s Washington, D.C. season but did not make it to the altar – also says that contestants were plied with “alcohol beverages, soft drinks, energy drinks, and mixers” with the goal of getting them intoxicated so that they could be “manipulated decisions for the benefit of the shows’ entertainment value.”
Now, Richardson wants compensation for lost wages and unspecified punitive damages for himself and other people on the show.
Netflix has not commented on Richardson’s lawsuit.
This isn’t the first ‘Love Is Blind’ lawsuit
Richardson is not the first Love Is Blind alum to take Netflix and the show’s producers to court.
Season 5 participant Renee Poche sued after she was penalized for breaching her non-disclosure agreement when she spoke about her toxic relationship with Carter Wall. The two got engaged in the pods, but were not one of the couples the show followed to the altar.
Tran Dang, another season 5 participant, also sued Kinetic Content, saying she was sexually assaulted by the man she got engaged to on the show. Dang and the man’s scenes were cut and neither appeared in any season 5 episodes.
Season 2 cast member Jeremy Hartwell sued Kinetic Content and Netflix in 2022 for allegedly violating labor laws. His complaints were similar to Richardson’s including “unsafe and inhumane working conditions for the cast” and accusations that participants were deprived of sleep and food and plied with alcohol during filming. The suit was settled for $1.4 million in late 2024.
Despite the lawsuits, Love Is Blind keeps chugging along. Season 9, which takes place in Denver, premieres October 1 on Netflix.