The ninth season of MTV’s Are You the One? has been put on hold after Season 5 contestant alleged she was “drugged” by production and “sexually assaulted” by a cast member on the series.
Gianna Hammer went public with allegations in a series of TikTok videos, where she said she didn’t want to “go after or expose” the star she claimed sexually assaulted her.
“This is more of my experience,” she said in one clip, “or how I felt about how the situation was handled.”
The Daily Beast spoke with Gianna about the alleged situation in an interview, and the reality TV star said the contestant she accuses of sexual assault was not let go from the series.
Instead, she said, there were changes to some of the protocols on the series for the co-star, including him being told to sleep on the couch and both stars being refused alcohol for the rest of production.
A spokesperson for MTV told The Daily Beast, “We take these issues very seriously and have paused production/casting to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations, the third-party production company and further review our internal safety protocols.”
Lighthearted Entertainment told the outlet, “We are confident that any review will confirm the safety protocols [sic] that we have long had in place on the sets of Are You The One?.”
“We deny the allegations made by the former contestant; throughout the eight seasons of the show, no contestant has reported an incident of sexual assault to Lighthearted.”
Gianna said that she was never contacted by production or MTV about the allegations after filming wrapped.
“I guess [I] really thought about it and was like, ‘Wow, that was really f–ked up,'” she shared.
“They should have never left me in an unsafe position. I’m definitely a changed person after it all.”
Gianna revealed that the night in question found her taking a low dosage of Zoloft, which her doctor said she should never take with alcohol.
Gianna said she got into an argument with one of the male cast members.
“That’s when the producers took me away into our confessional room,” Gianna claimed.
“They had walked back into the confessional room with me and that was when the three producers said that I needed to calm down and that they were going to give me one of my medications.”
“This part of the night is something I remember more clearly than anything else.”
“I know that my castmates said that I kept telling them, ‘I’m not supposed to do this when I’m drinking. I’m not supposed to do this when I’m drinking,” she said, adding that producers told her, “It was OK, they said it wasn’t a high enough dosage or something. So, I took it.”
She said that the next morning, producers told her that they needed her outside, and she was seated with three producers outside.
“I remember being shaky and not knowing what had gone on or if I was in trouble,” she shared.
“That’s when they asked me if I remember anything that happened last night. I said no. They kind of start going over what had happened… and that’s when I started really thinking and seeing some type of flashes.”
She alleges producers told her a male contestant got into bed with her and that other cast members heard her saying “no” to him, leading to the producers allegedly saying nothing happened.
“I didn’t know how to react to that situation,” she shared.
“Immediately after that, I think we had a pause, and then their next question was, ‘Do you want him kicked out, kicked off the show?’ I sat there, not even answering right away. I was staring at them, like, you just told me that this happened and I don’t remember it, now you want me to make this decision?”
After the incident, she said that the producers did not want to get rid of the cast member because his perfect match was in the house.
You can read the full interview on The Daily Beast.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.