‘Love Is Blind’ creator addresses allegations in lawsuit

“Love Is Blind” creator Chris Coelen is publicly addressing allegations by a former contestant of sexual assault, false imprisonment and negligence on set — calling the accusations “100% false and defamatory.”

Tran Dang was a cast member on Season 5 of the wildly popular series — filmed in the first half of 2022, but only recently streaming on Netflix — though she has not been featured on the show. Publicized as a social experiment, “Love Is Blind” chronicles marriage-seeking singles who go on dates while in pods — separated from their date by a wall — with the goal to get engaged before ever seeing each other in person.

In a lawsuit filed against the series’ production companies after the season wrapped, Dang claims she was “intentionally sequestered for two weeks” on set and had to get permission from producers to do “virtually anything,” including go to the bathroom.

According to the legal documents, she was not allowed to use her cellphone or have her wallet or passport while “in individual isolation rooms or pods.” She also claims that while back home in Houston, “her movements were continuously monitored by a ‘wrangler.’”

Fellow contestant Thomas Smith — to whom Dang got engaged but is no longer with — is also named as a defendant in the suit. Dang alleges that on May 3, 2022, while in Mexico as part of filming for the series, Smith “sexually assaulted the plaintiff throughout the night.” Her complaint states that he “forcefully groped her, exposed himself in the nude, and repeatedly made sexual contact over her express objections.”

Legal docs allege that the “24-hour surveillance” by production companies Kinetic Content and Delirium TV likely captured “most if not all” of these events, and that the “traumatic acts were filmed by the production crew and within their knowledge” — but that no one stepped in to stop it.

Dang also claims to have reported the events to an assistant producer, who allegedly responded by “implying that she was at fault … by not communicating effectively or somehow not taking the ‘relationship’ [with Smith] seriously.”

Dang ultimately decided to quit the show in the wake of her experience, but says she was forced to film a “final scene,” during which producers fed her scripted lines.

Dang is now seeking in excess of $1 million due to the “tortious, outrageous, and grossly negligent conduct” she experienced.

However, creator Chris Coelen says there’s absolutely no truth to Dang’s allegations.

“She did not make any kind of claim of assault of any kind,” the producer said in a statement to People. “We would not continue filming with someone who was expressing that an incident of that sort had happened. We have round-the-clock psychologists, a highly trained production team, we have a whole battalion of people whose job it is to make sure that we prioritize our participant’s well-being.”

“But the participant has to be actively involved in that process,” Coelen continued. “We strongly encourage people to speak out but we can’t be accountable if someone doesn’t tell us that they have a concern.”

Coelen also referred to Dang’s false imprisonment claims as “preposterous and ridiculous,” saying participants can come and go as they please.

“The participants are not under our control. They are living their lives,” he said. “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.”

Coelen did acknowledge that permission has be granted for certain things during periods of filming, but that it’s a necessary part of producing a reality show and of “protect(ing) the integrity of the experiment.”

“In the pods, they’re on a 68,000-square-foot sound stage,” Coelen explained. “We do not want them wandering around by themselves, and wandering over into [the other gender’s] living quarters, because sometimes people are tempted to do that.”

“So if they need to go to the bathroom, they tell us and we have someone escort them to the bathroom,” he added. “That is how it works in the pods. When they are out of the pods, they can go to the bathroom whenever they want.”