Lawyers target reality star after landmark ruling against Channel 7
Former Married At First Sight star, Tracey Jewel, has been inundated with phone calls from lawyers after a landmark ruling involving Channel 7 and House Rules contestant Nicole Prince.
NSW
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Married At First Sight star Tracey Jewel says she’s been bombarded with telephone calls from lawyers, in the wake of a landmark compensation ruling to a former House Rules contestant.
Jewel, who suffered mental health struggles, including post-traumatic stress and anxiety disorder, after her stint on MAFS last year, yesterday told Confidential that lawyers claim she has a strong case against Channel 9 and the show’s production company Endemol Shine Australia.
It comes after Channel 7 was ordered to pay compensation to former House Rules contestant Nicole Prince.
“To be honest, I’ve been inundated with people calling me and lawyers wanting to take my case, I’m a bit overwhelmed but it’s all positive,” Jewel said.
“It is obviously early days (but) taking legal action is something that I might do. I obviously need to do my own research but (Prince’s case) has definitely opened a door to that being a possibility.
“Thanks to the courage of this woman. It takes amazing courage to fight for something like this so I really commend her.” Prince, who appeared on House Rules in 2017, claimed in the NSW Workers Compensation Commission that her negative portrayal on the renovation show had affected her mental health.
She argued that her mental health struggles were caused by Seven’s “systematic isolation of myself and encouragement of bullying by co-competitors”, and she also accused the network of “harassment” after she was targeted by trolls on Seven’s social media pages.
The amount of compensation she will receive has not yet been determined.
Of the case, Seven boss James Warburton said: “The first thing is insurance covers it and the second thing is there has been no judgment yet.
“We are waiting on the judgment and then we will have a look at it. Ultimately we have to see what happens in terms of the overall judgment. We have all got a duty of care.”
Jewel said that lawyers who had contacted her believed she may be entitled to up to 90 per cent of loss of earnings from the past year, which she estimates to be about $100,000. “My medical bills were $12,000 and the lost income is around $90,000,” she said.
“There’s two parts to it, there’s potential negligence and then there’s the workers’ compensation.”