Love Is Blind Season 5 star Renee Poche has slapped Netflix and Delirium TV with a lawsuit, claiming producers forced her to keep dating her match, Carter Wall, even though she wanted out, TMZ has reported.
The documents state that unbeknownst to Renee, Carter was an addict with anger issues, and had no job or place to live when she was matched to him.
In the lawsuit, Renee claimed that the producers of ‘Love Is Blind’ knew Carter was unstable and broke but allowed him to go on the show and pursue a relationship with her. She even asserted that she didn’t want to film with him but was forced to do so by production.
Renee and Carter had initially matched in the pods without seeing each other and even got engaged and made it all the way to the altar; however, their story wasn’t shown during Season 5. According to Renee, the two went to Mexico with the other engaged couples, but that’s when she claims to have seen major red flags in Carter, such as violent behavior, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.
“She says she became terrified to spend time with him but claims producers forced them to film together for long periods,” TMZ reports, adding that Renee called Carter “emotionally abusive.”
Renee said that producers threatened to sue her if she didn’t move forward with her engagement to Carter, and that when she went to his hometown in Texas, producers expressed their concern that Carter might have access to weapons that he could use to hurt her, himself or others.
When she wanted to end the engagement, Renee said producers threatened to sue her, and after speaking out about her ‘Love Is Blind’ experience, Delirium has hit her with a $4 million lawsuit, claiming she broke her NDA.
Renee broke down what happened behind the scenes on a recent episode of the Out of the Pods podcast, during which she confirmed that her and Carter’s storyline had been filmed for Season 5, but that producers later called her and told her they wouldn’t be featured on the show as they didn’t want her to “relive” everything she had gone through with Carter.
According to Renee, though, the reason her and Carter’s story wasn’t being shown is that Carter threatened to commit suicide if the footage aired.
“I was really confused,” she said. “I thought that it was just going to be … so everything was shown, just not as deep as what really happened, which I kind of wouldn’t have been surprised if that was the case since so much bad stuff happened. I knew that a lot of things just wouldn’t have been appropriate for Netflix.”
Renee was also told that her storyline was cut because Netflix simply didn’t have enough episodes to air it, but she believes it’s because things were so “toxic” between her and Carter that they didn’t want viewers to see it.
She stated that she did fall in love with Carter and things were great between them until she saw warning signs while they were in Mexico. Renee claims Carter refused to film a shower scene, which Renee understood, but he went on to become overly angry and threaten the camera person.
In another instance, she claims Carter flipped out on a female crew member back in Texas, after the crew member failed to give him her water bottle so that he could spit out his tobacco.
Eventually, Renee told producers she didn’t want to be alone with Carter.
“I was legitimately scared of him,” she said. “And I told him that too but he was just like, ‘I can’t believe you would ever think that.’”
At that point, they both knew they weren’t getting married but Renee said production didn’t want to cease filming so she was told to give Carter another chance, despite her concerns.
After telling him “no” at the altar, Renee revealed that Carter reached out to her and asked to be friends but she declined.
“I don’t want to be friends,” she said. “So no, we don’t talk.”
Renee’s lawsuit against Netflix comes less than a year after former ‘Love Is Blind’ cast members Nick Thompson (Season 2) and Danielle Drouin (Season 1) came forward to share their own experience from the show, including the emotional, mental and physical toll being in the pods allegedly had on them. Season 2 cast member Jeremy Hartwell also filed a lawsuit against Netflix and the show’s producers back in 2022 over “inhumane working conditions.”
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(Photos: Netflix; Instagram)
2 Responses
If his employment is “construction” run. Run fast. Unless he owns his own construction company. Construction is code for unemployed 90% of the time.
Wow! That’s not cool, I wonder how Carter was even allowed to be on the show. Clearly production on this show is a nightmare.