“Bridgerton” star Ruby Barker said the makers of the period drama series ignored her after she suffered two serious mental health episodes. (Watch the video below.)
“Not a single person from Netflix, not a single person from Shondaland, since I have had two psychotic breaks from that show, have even contacted me or even emailed me to ask me if I’m OK or if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support,” she said on an episode of “The LOAF Podcast” posted Saturday. “Nobody.”
In a regular role on Season 1, Barker played Marina Thompson, a character trying to conceal her pregnancy out of wedlock. Barker said the role agitated her mental state.
“It was a really tormenting place for me to be because my character was very alienated, very ostracized, on her own, under these horrible circumstances,” she said.
Barker said she was hospitalized for a year after filming the first season and claimed the issue was kept “on the down-low” and out of the press around the December 2020 premiere so as not to harm the series’ prospects.
As the show gained popularity, Barker said no one had her back. “My life was changing drastically overnight, and yet there was still no support, and there still hasn’t been any support for that time,” she said. “So I was trying really, really hard to just sort of act like, you know, this is fine. This is OK. I’m OK. I can work. It’s not a problem.”
Barker went public with her second hospitalization in May 2022 in an Instagram video from a medical center where she struck a different tone. The British actor thanked Netflix and the show’s executive producer (and Shondaland founder) Shonda Rhimes “for saving me.”
HuffPost has reached out to Netflix and Shondaland for comment.
Fast-forward to 8:45 for her comments on the show: