After an altercation with another cast member during a liquor fuel party, Gianna Hammer, who starred in the reality show’s fifth season in 2016, claims she was given an extra dose of her prescription medication.
According to Gianna, she was on anti-anxiety medicine when she entered Season 5 of the show, filmed in the Dominican Republic. She describes what happened at an alcohol-fueled cast party one night during filming. Gianna claims that after a fight with another cast member, the producers gave her an extra dose of her medicine amid her complaints that the medication shouldn’t be combined with alcohol. She claims she blacked out after that, but other contestants later told her that they had to drag her out of bed she was sharing with a male cast member after hearing her say “no.”
According to Daily Beast, after the incident, Gianna claims that the producers allowed the male contestant to stay on the show. Lighthearted Entertainment produces Are You the One? which has been casting lately for the upcoming season.
Initially, Gianna made the allegations in a series of TikTok posts, explaining that she didn’t want to “go after or reveal” the co-star she says abused her—because she herself didn’t identify him.
Work on the next ninth season of MTV’s Are You the One? the show was placed on hold following Gianna’s story featured on Daily Beast this Sunday which stated that during the filming of Season 5 2017, former competitor Gianna Hammer was drugged by producers and sexually assaulted in a gang attack.
A spokesperson from MTV responded to the allegations made by Gianna and stated that the Network takes these incidents seriously and hence has paused the production of the current season to perform an independent investigation about the allegations made. It was also stated that the production company and their internal safety protocols were also to be reviewed.
The production company involved, Lighthearted Entertainment, also agreed to have an investigation and promised complete corporation and transparency in the case. However, the company also stated,
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 claims that the contestant she accuses of sexual harassment was never thrown off the show after the incident. Instead, she says that Lighthearted Entertainment executives convinced her to keep her co-star. Furthermore, she mentioned that new restrictions had been imposed: he would sleep on the couch and they would both be prohibited from drinking alcohol for the duration of the shoot.
Gianna says that the producers “downplayed” giving her medicine at first, but that they later confessed to doing so. Producers told her that she and a male contestant been in bed together, but other cast members overheard her telling him “no.” She claims that despite producers telling her that “nothing happened,” other castmates interfered and dragged her out of bed after overhearing her.
I didn’t know how to react to that situation, 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?
Gianna also claims that producers took cast members who witnessed the incident aside and told them they couldn’t talk about it. Gianna’s claims that she was asked to sign an NDA in connection with the incident were refuted by Lighthearted Entertainment.
The Daily Beast reported that they spoke with five other seasons cast members, including Tyranny Todd and Hayden Weaver, who confirmed some of Gianna’s story.
Tyranny says she overheard Gianna attempting to fend off the male co-advances, star’s and she found he was on top of her at one point.
I’m just like, what the f–k?” Todd recalled. “We went over there to try to get him off of her because we were like, ‘This is weird.’ I remember just always being really, really mad because we knew that Gianna was taken advantage of. I can remember it clear as day, he was on top of her and to turn around, like, ‘What the f–k? This is not cool.
Gianna said that she was contacted by an investigator, who originally reached out to her last summer.
She let me know there will be a third-party investigation going on. So we will see how that goes. Out of all of this, it would have just been nice to see a little humanity from the production company and network. At this point, I’m not holding out for anything. I just hope my story encourages others who may have been in a similar position to feel strong and empowered.
