Love Is Blind Season 5 cast member Renee Poche has filed a lawsuit against Netflix and the show’s production company, Delirium TV, claiming she “felt like a prisoner” filming the show and was made to feel unsafe after being “matched with a walking red flag,” her former fiancé Carter Wall.
Poche also claims she was made to enter into an “overreaching and unlawful talent agreement” to film Love Is Blind, and that she had her phone, passport and driver’s license seized by production staff on her first night in Los Angeles. “When not filming, Poche was locked in her hotel room, unable to leave without a ‘cast wrangler’ accompanying her,” court documents obtained by Entertainment Tonight claim. “She was expressly forbidden from interacting not only with other participants but also with random hotel guests and staff. In some ways, and this is a sentiment shared by many participants, Poche felt like a prisoner.”
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Poche also claimed that while she was paid $8,000 to be on the show, she was made to believe that stipend could be “clawed back” and that she would be sued “unless she agreed to all of production’s demands, even if they made her feel unsafe.” Poche’s safety concerns extended to Wall, whom she allegedly was assured had passed the rigorous background check process, psychological examinations and compatibility assessment required of each cast member.
However, Poche claims she was instead “matched with a walking red flag,” alleging that Wall was “unemployed with a negative balance in his bank account, homeless, violent, estranged from his family, and actively addicted to drugs and alcohol.” Their relationship was not featured on Season 5 of Love Is Blind, despite being filmed, and Poche said was plagued by “Wall’s erratic and alarming behavior and emotional instability,” which left her “utterly terrified to be around him.”
Poche claimed production also was concerned about Wall, “warning” her to “ensure he did not have access to firearms or other weapons.” Despite those safety concerns, Poche claims she was “forced to spend long stretches of time alone with him,” and that the production company “made it clear that she would subject herself to legal action if she were to discontinue her participation [on Love Is Blind] or otherwise refuse to move forward with the engagement.”
Poche’s problems with Love Is Blind didn’t end after filming wrapped. She claims that after making “limited public remarks about her horrifying experience,” the production company sued her for “an exorbitant $4 million” for “purportedly violating her unlawful nondisclosure agreement,” which she claims is “itself illegal and unenforceable.”
Neither Netflix nor Delerium have responded publicly at this time to the filing but show creator Chris Coelen told PEOPLE last year that contestants are not required to stay on Love Is Blind in response to another similar lawsuit filed by Season 5’s Tran Dang. “If you stay, that is your decision,” Coelen said in October. “The participants are not under our control. They are living their lives. We come in, we film them for a period of time, we leave. They can leave – as many, many, many people have before – anytime they want.”
