Is there trouble brewing behind-the-scenes in Bridgerton? That appears to be the case thanks to new revelation from series star Ruby Barker who recently called out Netflix and Shondaland for not providing support after she suffered “two psychotic breaks” as a result of filming the show.
During a recent interview on the Oxford University’s LOAF Podcast over the weekend, Barker revealed that she suffered one psychotic break during season one and a second in 2022. She said the stress to her mental health was spawned by the meteoric rise to fame she experienced by being on the show and the fact that her character, Marina—the town pariah due to her arguably unscrupulous pregnancy—had to deal with a hight level of isolation and difficulty in her storyline.
“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 if I’m OK or if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support. Nobody.” she said.
She later added: “During filming, I was deteriorating. 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.”
Describing her first psychotic break, Barker revealed that she was hospitalized one week after finishing filming for season one of the show but that she kept it under wraps because she didn’t want to dampen the hype of the series premiering.
“In the run-up to the show coming out, I was just coming out from hospital, my Instagram following was going up, I had all these engagements to do. My life was changing drastically overnight and yet there was still no support and there still hasn’t been any support all that time. So I was trying really, really hard to act like it was OK and that I could work and that it wasn’t a problem.”