‘Bridgerton’ Star Ruby Barker Accuses Netflix & Shondaland Of Covering Up Her Psychotic Breaks

Bridgerton actress Ruby Barker accused Netflix and Shonda Rhimes of failing to support her during two psychotic breaks that she suffered following the series’ success.

Barker played series regular Marina in season two of Bridgerton. She said that her first psychotic break occurred after they wrapped production on season one, and the second occurred in 2022.

“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 okay or if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support,” Barker said during an interview on Oxford University’s LOAF Podcast, Nobody.

“During filming, I was deteriorating,” Barker explained. “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.”

“When I went into the 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,” she continued.

“In the run-up to the show coming out, I was just coming out from the hospital, my Instagram following was going up, I had all these engagements to do,” she added. “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 okay and that I could work and that it wasn’t a problem.”

Barker briefly opened up about her mental health struggles on Instagram in May 2022.

“I am in the hospital at the minute and I am going to be discharged soon and hopefully continue with my life,” she posted, going on to say that she was “really unwell for a really long time” and has been “struggling since Bridgerton.“

Neither Netflix nor Shondaland have responded to Barker’s accusations.