Bridgerton actor Ruby Barker has criticised Netflix and the show’s production company, Shondaland, for failing to support her during “two psychotic breaks” that happened following being involved in the immense hit.
Notably, Barker played Marina in Bridgerton. The character is a Featherington cousin who gets pregnant and causes a scandal. In a new interview, she revealed that her first “psychotic break” emerged in 2019 after production wrapped up on the first season. She said a second one happened in 2022 and that she received “no support” from Netflix.
“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 okay or if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support,” Barker said in an interview on Oxford University’s LOAF Podcast (per The Daily Beast). “Nobody.”
Barker claimed that her mental health issues started during the filming of Bridgerton and that her character’s isolated nature negatively impacted her. “During filming, I was deteriorating,” she reflected. “It was a really tormenting place for me to be because my character was very alienated, very ostracised, on her own under these horrible circumstances.”
“When I went into hospital a week after shooting Bridgerton Season one, it was really covered up and kept on the down-low because the show was going to be coming out,” Barker explained.
She continued: “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.”
Barker added: “It’s almost like I had this metaphorical invisible gun to my head to sell this show because this show is bubbly and fun. I don’t want to come out and poo poo on that because then I’ll never work again.”
Watch footage of Barker’s interview below.
