Contestant Tran Dang claims that she was "aggressively recruited" and that she experienced sexual assault while filming the fifth season of the show in Mexico and claims that the crime was likely caught on camera.
From Deadline:
Claiming she was “aggressively recruited” to appear on the hit Netflix reality series and “intentionally sequestered for two weeks” in the show’s pods by producers, Dang’s complaint alleges she was attacked by her then on-screen fiancé Thomas Smith on May 3, 2022 while in Mexico shooting Love Is Blind’s fifth season. The filing from Houston law firm Wallace & Allen LLP details that “due to Delirium TV and Kinetic Content’s 24-hour surveillance of Plaintiff and Defendant Smith, most if not all of these traumatic acts were filmed by the production crew and within their knowledge.”
“Delirium TV and Kinetic Content producers made attempts to mask Plaintiff’s sexual assault by characterizing it as a lack of attraction on part of the Plaintiff,” according to the complaint, which seeks a jury trial.
Read Dang’s filing against the Love Is Blind producers and Smith.
The lawsuit filed in Harris County District Court filed damningly adds that Dang “was baffled that no one had intervened to stop the harassment.” Upon reaching out to a Love Is Blind assistant producer, Dang adds the crew member left her with the impression “that she was at fault for what had happened with Thomas Smith by not communicating effectively or somehow not taking the ‘relationship’ seriously.”
Eventually leaving Love Is Blind during filming, Dang is seeking “significant damages due to Defendants’ criminal, tortious, and outrageous conduct.” Neither Dang nor Smith, who is named as a defendant, are featured in Love Is Blind‘s fifth season, which launched September 22 on Netflix.
Created by Kinetic CEO Chris Coelen, reality series puts singles looking for love together and engaged, all before actually meeting in person.
On Friday, Kinetic Content and Delirium TV rejected Dang’s assertions of what went down on Love Is Blind Season 5.
“We support and stand with victims of sexual assault, but Ms. Dang’s claims against the producers are meritless,” the companies said in a joint statement.
