Love Is Blind contestant Tran Dang has filed a lawsuit against the producers of the popular Netflix reality series over an alleged sexual assault.
As reported by Deadline, Dang is suing production companies Kinetic Content and Delirium TV for sexual assault, false imprisonment, and negligence. She claimed she was "aggressively recruited" for Love Is Blind and was "intentionally sequestered for two weeks." During production in Mexico of the show's fifth season, Dang was allegedly attacked by Thomas Smith, who was her on-screen fiancé. Per the filing, "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.”
The complaint is seeking a jury trial and accuses the production companies of masking the sexual assault "by characterizing it as a lack of attraction on part of the Plaintiff." Smith is also included in the lawsuit, which was filed in Harris County District Court. Dang said she was "baffled" while no one involved in the production of the show made any attempts to intervene when the alleged assault happened. She later spoke with an assistant producer about the incident, and she came away feeling she "was at fault for what had happened with Thomas Smith by not communicating effectively or somehow not taking the ‘relationship’ seriously."
Dang left the show during production and is seeking "significant damages due to Defendants’ criminal, tortious, and outrageous conduct." The fifth season of Love Is Blind debuted on Netflix on Sept. 22, but Dang and Smith did not make the final cut.
The production companies have denied any wrongdoing in a shared statement. "We support and stand with victims of sexual assault, but Ms. Dang’s claims against the producers are meritless,” said Kinetic Content and Delirium TV. "We document the independent choices of adults who volunteer to participate in a social experiment,’ they added. “Their journey is not scripted, nor is it filmed around the clock. We have no knowledge or control over what occurs in private living spaces when not filming, and participants may choose to end their journey at any time."
The companies said that while they take concerns and allegations of assault by contestants very seriously, they allege that Dang never informed producers of the incident during production. "Ms. Dang continued in the experiment for weeks after the time her lawyers now claim an incident occurred. We deny and will vigorously defend the allegations against us," the statement continued.
