Ruby Barker, who portrayed Marina Thompson on “Bridgerton,” is slamming Netflix and Shondaland after she suffered from two psychotic breaks that left her hospitalized.
“When I went into hospital a week after shooting ‘Bridgerton’ season one, that was really, really covered up and kept on the down-low because the show was going to be coming out,” she began.
“I was deteriorating,” Barker, 26, said on “The LOAF” podcast. “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.”
Barker continued to explain that she experienced her first breakdown after the first season of “Bridgerton,” which wrapped in 2019, and a second 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 emailed me to ask me if I’m OK or ask me if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support,” the actress alleged. “Nobody.”
She went on to say that after not feeling supported, Barker tried “really, really hard” to brush it off and convince herself she was “fine.”
“My life was changing drastically overnight, and yet there was still no support, and there still hasn’t been any support for that time,” she said. “So, I was trying really, really hard to just sort of act like, you know, this is fine. This is OK. I’m OK. I can work. It’s not a problem.”
The “Bridgerton” star further explained that she constantly felt pressure to pretend everything was normal after production but deep down she knew it wasn’t.
“It’s almost like I had this kind of metaphorical invisible gun to my head to sell this show because this show’s bubbly and fun and all of these things,” she noted. “I don’t want to come out and poo, poo on that because then I might never work again.”
Barker candidly spoke out about how she treated her mental health, and confessed she went on medication that turned her into a “zombie.” She explained that she had to consistently take the treatment for a year, or she was at “risk” for “having another episode, breakdown.”
She said being on medication impacted how she would communicate with her loved ones, and they could recognize she didn’t appear present.
Barker previously spoke out about her “mental health struggle” in May 2022 on social media.
Since her psychotic breaks, the “How to Stop a Recurring Dream” star has found making music “therapeutic” after her hospitalizations last year.
