Natalie Lee and Deepti Vempati are wading into the conversation surrounding the working conditions on Netflix‘s Love Is Blind and the impact the show’s had on their lives since it aired. Lee and Vempati addressed their former Love Is Blind season 2 co-star Nick Thompson’s comments that he was struggling to find a job following his time on the show and was now near-homelessness.
Thompson hit out at Netflix and Kinetic Content, the production company behind the show, in an interview with ET, where he said they were essentially paid just $7.14 an hour for 10 weeks of filming that involved 18 to 20-hour filming days. The former reality star said he was laid off from his position and thought his presence on the show was a contributing factor.
“I definitely felt like I wasn’t taken as seriously anymore… people would treat me a little bit differently and not take my ideas or my work as seriously,” he told the publication. He added that he’s been struggling to find a new position because companies didn’t want to be associated with his name.
However, while Lee and Vempati expressed their sympathy for Thompson’s difficult position, they didn’t agree that the show was to blame. “It sucks to read that he is in a really hard position,” Lee said on the women’s podcast Out of the Pods. “It’s tough to say because we both know Nick personally, but can I be honest, though, I don’t think that he can blame the show.”
Vempati, who was a breakout star of Love Is Blind season 2, agreed that she was “very empathetic” to Thompson’s plight but felt “there are more factors than Netflix being the reason why he’s not able to find a position.” Her podcast co-host said, “I don’t want to discredit what he’s going through… If anything, we have our own qualms with Kinetic Content.”
Both women went on to explain they had corporate jobs, and admitted that their jobs were affected by the time on the show. They also pointed out that they are now in a different position than Thompson, as they both monetized their time on the show and left their corporate jobs. However, Lee and Vempati said they didn’t believe the show would affect their ability to get jobs. “I don’t think it’s impacted our ability to get hired. It didn’t impact our reputation that much,” Lee said. “I don’t think the show made me unhirable by any means,” she said, despite getting what she called a “sloppy” edit.
Vempati got engaged to Abishek “Shake” Chatterjee sight unseen during season 2 of Love Is Blind, but the fan favorite decided to say no to the veterinarian at the altar based on some of his comments about her looks. She’s since published a memoir titled I Choose Myself, in which she details her path toward self-empowerment.
As for Lee, she also got engaged on the show and turned down her fiancé, Shayne Jansen, at the altar. The two reality stars dated on and off afterward and Lee admitted in a previous podcast episode that while she’s not currently dating Jansen, their situation “still continues on today” and described it as a “toxic mess.”