A psychologist who went viral posting 'Love Is Blind' takes says she regrets analyzing cast members after they told her about 'inhumane' conditions on the show
Dr. Isabelle Morley built a following online analyzing "Love Is Blind" in 2022.
After learning more about the conditions on set, she vowed never to write about the show.
She co-founded a foundation with 2 former cast members to make reality TV more ethical.
Throughout season three of Netflix's "Love Is Blind" in 2022, Dr. Isabelle Morley recapped the most dramatic episodes and storylines on her "Psychology Today" blog.
"There was a lot of content to write about, a lot of relationship issues that could be explored," Morley, a clinical psychologist based in Boston, told Business Insider. She would comment on red flags or if couples on the show were likely to stay together, using the reality TV contestants' on-screen behavior to talk about broader relationship topics from a therapy perspective.
But the finale episode — when all the cast members come together to reflect on their "social experiment" — gave her pause. It came out on air that one participant may have been subjected to emotional abuse. In her final blog post, Morley questioned the ethics of the show.
That skepticism opened the door to Morley learning more about the show's production process. Jeremy Hartwell, a season two cast member who sued Netflix over what he said were "inhumane" working conditions, reached out to Morley after reading her article.
About five months after speaking to Hartwell and Nick Thompson, another former castmember, Morley co-founded a non-profit organization with them in April 2023: The Unscripted Cast Advocacy Network (UCAN) Foundation.
Beyond pushing for more ethical reality TV production standards, Morley does her part by refusing to write about "Love Is Blind" and similar shows because of how it can mischaracterize and negatively affect cast members. She also posts about her views on reality TV on Instagram to educate audiences about how misleading some popular shows can be.
"Love Is Blind" cast members described 'inhumane' conditions
Hartwell later spoke to Business Insider about his experience filming "Love Is Blind," which he alleged included 20-hour work days with inadequate food or sleep, as well as an excess of alcohol.
Morley said she learned "the full story was so much darker" after speaking to about 15 former "Love Is Blind" cast members, most of whom wish to remain anonymous from fear of breaching their NDAs.
"People do not know what they're signing up for," she said. "They do not know how sleep-deprived they'll be. They do not know what it will feel like to have their credit cards and passport and IDs taken away from them so that they cannot leave even if they wanted to."
According to Business Insider's reporting, former contestants slept in trailers full of cockroaches and believe producers cast exes on the show to stir up drama. Cast Member Renee Poche also said her ex-fiancé on the show was violent and addicted to drugs, but that production forced her to be alone with him.
No more armchair analysis
When the latest season of "Love Is Blind" aired, Morley explained in a blog post why she will never write about the show again.
Her post was reshared by former "Vanderpump Rules" cast member Rachel Leviss (previously "Raquel"), who left the show after being involved in a highly publicized affair with another cast member. Leviss screenshotted and shared Morley's article on her Instagram story, highlighting a section about how producers' cuts can greatly alter what happened in real life.
While Morley stands by her former "Love Is Blind" analysis, she also acknowledges that she never knew what was happening behind the scenes. Part of the issue, she added, is that "conversations are cut apart, taken out of order."
Writing articles about cast members fuels the fire, Morley said. "Everyone loves reading about it, talking about it. It has a huge audience, not just for viewing it, but for consuming content afterwards, looking at people's opinions and analyses and dissecting what happened."
Knowing that cast members likely read her articles, Morley said: "I regret the impact that it had."
Reality TV can be fun and ethical
Morley believes most audiences don't understand the extent to which reality TV is manipulated and edited. "They truly do not know how coerced and created these shows are," she said. "Scenes are created that didn't exist."
Even if people sign up to be on shows like "Love Is Blind" of their own free will, Morley said it doesn't excuse poor treatment on and off set. "We have standards in this country, in this world," she said. "Even if people are willing to sign themselves over to something like that, we shouldn't allow it."
Morley believes that the US should follow countries like the UK, which introduced new laws to protect unscripted TV talent. She doesn't believe that more ethical standards will reduce the drama that keeps viewers hooked in the first place.
"It's not as if we need to take away people's human rights or manipulate and coerce them or put them in unsafe situations to elicit that," Morley said. ""I work with people all day, every day — working on their relationship, on their individual goals. It's drama all the time."
Read the original article on Business Insider