'Bridgerton's Ruby Barker Says She Had No Support From Netflix Amid 'Psychotic Breaks'

Bridgerton actress Ruby Barker is opening up about the mental health issues she’s suffered in recent years, and how she felt let down by Netflix and Shondaland in the aftermath.

Barker was cast in the role of Marina Thompson, an unmarried young woman forced to conceal her pregnancy while looking for a suitor at the behest of the relatives with whom she is staying. She admitted that the alienation and ostracism of her character contributed to her mental health “deteriorating” during filming. And shortly after production wrapped on season one, she says that she checked herself into a mental hospital due to a psychotic break.

“That was really covered up and kept on the down low, because the show was going to be coming out,” she recently said during an interview on The LOAF Podcast.

This isn’t the first time Barker has discussed her mental health. She went public with her struggles in 2022 after being admitted to a hospital for the second time. Speaking directly to fans at the time, she thanked Netflix for “saving her” through her role in Bridgerton.

With some distance, she seems to have a different perspective, expressing frustration over the lack of support she says she received from the companies behind the show.

“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 okay or ask me if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support,” Barker claimed.

“In the run-up to the show coming out, I was just coming out from hospital, my Instagram following was going up. I had all of these engagements to do,” she said. “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 also spoke about the pressure to act like everything was fine, both to sell the “bubbly and fun” show and because she worried coming across as anything but fine could mean she “might never work again.”

Barker went on to appear in season two of Bridgerton as a guest star, but recently told Digital Spy that, despite the show being “the most amazing and most important experience in [her] professional life,” she didn’t think it was likely she would return for future seasons.

“You know, [Marina’s] got a very, very tragic end,” she said. “I doubt—I highly, highly doubt—that the creators of the show would ask for me, given my history, and what happened to me alongside playing that role, for me to come back and finish that storyline. It’s not going to happen. I’ve done my bit.”

You can watch Barker’s full appearance on The LOAF Podcast below.