Jamie Doran claims bullying in Warner Bros, Bachelor in Paradise lawsuit

Bachelor in Paradise star Jamie Doran has lifted the lid on the nature of his lawsuit against production company Warner Bros.

Bachelor in Paradise star Jamie Doran has lifted the lid on the nature of his lawsuit against production company Warner Bros International as they prepare to battle it out in court.

The former fireman told Confidential his grievances go beyond his “villain edit” on the now axed Channel 10 show and include claims of bullying and lack of duty of care.

Jamie Doran on Bachelor in Paradise.

“We’re still going ahead. I will find out this week what day we’re going to court,” Doran said.

“I just want it done and finished. It’s like a black cloud that’s hanging over my head at the moment. It’s been really stressful for me. This has been going on since August.

“I feel they lacked a duty of care with a lot of things. There’s 22 different things we’re looking at.”

Doran said he was naively excited while making his way to sunny Fiji.

The 41-year-old claims he was “set up” to appear “clingy” and “emotionally unstable” during filming and that there were red flags on set.

“Firstly, their alcohol policy was way out — they said two drinks an hour but we were having up to 10 drinks an hour,” he said.

“I was bullied into doing certain things on the show and I thought ‘If I didn’t do it, I’d get sent home’.

“There’s a lot more to it than the editing of the audio and cutting up video footage. It’s a bit of a mess.”

Doran said the “sneaky tactics” in Fiji were reminiscent of his time on another Channel 10 dating show, The Bachelorette, which aired in 2019.

“Sometimes they would do an interview with me on Angie’s (Kent) season for two hours and they wouldn’t release me from the interview until I said something.

“Or they would get me to say something 15 times and the 15th time it was that really tense stage-five clinger way that you saw on TV.

“The first five times I said it was really chilled out then they would say, ‘Come on, give us more’.

“I didn’t see it coming because I’d never watched the show so I was being silly and performing for them, then I watched it back on TV and thought ‘Holy cow’ … I was set up!’”

Doran’s portrayal made him an easy target for online trolls and while he is not suing Channel 10, he believes the broadcaster has a lot to answer for.

“They never screened comments on their Instagram and Facebook pages. People would write vile comments about me and they never deleted them,” he said.

“They edited a video of me talking to Helena (Sauzier) and added a Star Wars theme as a joke, then they put that up on Facebook and Instagram, and I felt like they were really trying to go at me.

“There were death threats. People said I had autism and mental illness problems and things like that. It was hard to cop.

“People say, ‘Oh don’t read the comments’ but because they tagged me in the post I would get notifications every time someone commented.”

Doran was initially thrilled to be on the show, particularly after seeing his promotional photos on billboards, however the excitement was short lived.

After the first few episodes, he realised he had been duped and was ridiculed by trolls over his portrayal.

He immediately contacted Channel 10 however their response baffled him.

“Before the show started, I was on the billboards and buses and I thought ‘This is going to be good’ and then I saw the episodes and thought ‘Oh no’ … I called Channel 10 and said ‘I’m really upset with what you’re doing’,” he said.

“They said, ‘Jamie you leave tomorrow and after that you will never have to worry about an episode of reality TV for the rest of your life’ … I thought that was a bit nasty and passive aggressive because they knew we had offers on the table for the jungle (I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here) and Celebrity Gogglebox.

“When I pushed back, they would get kind of mad. They would switch from really nice to really angry and that annoyed me, so I said ‘I’m calling my lawyer’ and they cancelled all of my media interviews that were scheduled for the next morning.”

Confidential has contacted Channel 10 and Warner Bros for comment.

While attending a yacht party hosted by Flotespace and Staple Drinks last week, Doran said he hopes his case would set a precedent to help others.

“This is not about money, it’s about helping others who do reality shows. There’s nothing in place, no support or anything … I want to change that.”