Danielle Ruhl Claims There Was A $50K Fine If She Left 'Love Is Blind'

"Love Is Blind" season 2 contestant Danielle Ruhl is opening up on some of the mistreatment that she alleges that she received at the hands of producers of the Netflix show.

Danielle got married to Nick Thompson on the show but later filed for divorce and the two have since gone their separate ways; however, Danielle is now saying she never should have gone on the show to begin with.

Business Insider interviewed several past contestants, including Danielle, who claimed that she was concerned for her mental health and didn't think that she could resume filming. “I kept telling them, ‘I don’t trust myself,'” she said. “‘I’ve tried committing suicide before. I’m having suicidal thoughts. I don’t think I can continue in this.'”

In two follow-up videos posted to Instagram, Danielle spoke candidly about her experience and there would have been a $50k fine if she left the show.

Captioning her post with the hashtags #loveisblind and #loveisblindNetflix, Danielle opened up on her story and said that she wished she never had agreed to take part in a reality show.

"Looking back, I never should have agreed to go on a reality show. I wish I was more educated and self aware at the time. I really did think that because of the premise of the show, it would be different," she said. "I trusted that the psychologists who did the 30 minute screenings would not choose those they did not deem mentally fit. I did not think that they would use the information said in these screenings against you during filming as I thought it was confidential."

"I did go into this knowing that there is a $50K fine associated with leaving the show and I should have taken this more seriously before signing a contract," she admitted. "My mental health during this experience impacted Nick as well. It was really hard to navigate. Even after filming, it impacted myself, my husband and those who care about me. I will always admit it was a giant mistake to participate and I’m still trying to re-find myself and who I was before filming."

Danielle explained that she was sharing this information so that Kinetic, the company behind the show, would learn "to treat contestants better and to help viewers give participants grace." However, she then went on to say, "Everyone’s experience is different, so I am only speaking for myself. In my season, people’s experiences were very different based on how ethical their producers were."

Danielle has previously voiced support for season 2 contestant Jeremy Hartwell after he filed a lawsuit against Netflix and the producers of the show, alleging that producers “contributed to inhumane working conditions and altered mental state for the cast” through a “combination of sleep deprivation, isolation, lack of food and an excess of alcohol all either required, enabled or encouraged” by those in power.

In his lawsuit, Jeremy claimed that contestants were “regularly denied food both on the Defendants’ production set and in their hotel living quarters.” He also claimed that the sinks in the on-set lounges didn’t actually work, so they had to rely on production assistants to bring them bottled water - which they did, along with alcohol.

“They would run out of food,” Danielle alleged in the Business Insider report, adding, “I remember every time we’d get to the freaking kitchen, there’d be like one hard-boiled egg and it was like a fight to see like who could actually get the stuff.”

This is not the first time that Danielle has been vocal about the mistreatment she claims that she endured on set, which included "coughing up blood" and being denied medical treatment.

“There were 2 days they stopped giving Nick and I water and food in Mexico (We snuck to a neighbors through the swim up pool to get some),” Danielle alleged. “Me and Nick begged to leave Mexico bc of how bad everything was. I was so sick I was coughing up blood but wasn’t able to see a doctor.”

“Everyone made me believe that I should hate myself, and I didn’t, until they engraved it in my brain,” she added. “So watching what ur seeing is many ppl being tortured to fit a narrative preconceived.”

In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Kinetic Content responded to the Business Insider report, saying, “The wellbeing of our participants is of paramount importance to Kinetic.” The company added, “We have rigorous protocols in place to care for each person before, during, and after filming.”

Kinetic also claimed that Hartwell’s allegations had “absolutely no merit” and vowed to “vigorously defend against his claims.”