My 600-lb Life was already facing a lawsuit from the family of the late LB Bonner, who accuse the show of contributing to his early death by suicide.
Three surviving stars are suing the show’s production company and actively seeking to end a show that they say does more harm than good.
Earlier in February, Season 6 star David Bolton filed a lawsuit echoing LB Bonner’s fmaily’s allegations of gross negligence.
Now, Gina Krasley, Jeanne Covey, and Maja Radanovic have filed a lawsuit together.
Maja and Jeanne were on Season 7. Gina was on Season 8.
Together, the trio are suing Megalomedia, the production company, alleging that My 600-lb Life sacrificed their health and well being for ratings.
First, Maja filed suit, accusing the ocmpany of lying to her about covering medical costs. That is not a new allegation, and it’s very troubling.
Then, Gina threw her hat into the ring with a litany of accusations.
She accuses Megalomedia of failing to provide adequate health services during her extreme weight loss diet.
Gina also says that the show did not properly evaluate her mental state before embarking on the weight loss journey, which was irresponsible.
Most seriously, Gina says that Megalomedia’s employees were not properly trained about depression and it’s symptoms, causes, and effects.
This was particularly alarming, because of the severe and well-known effects upon mental health that dramatic weight loss can have.
Some would compare a starvation diet — that is, a dramtaic caloric deficit designed to cause rapid weight loss — to suddenly taking someone off of their meds.
Gina accuses the production company of causing severe emotional distress for the sake of ratings, and of skewing their portrayal of her to that end.
Like seemingly everyone else, Jeanne accuses Megalomedia of not actually following through on their promise to cover medical experiences.
She also claims that production forced her and her mother, Barbara Fallaw, to film when they did not want to.
This allegedly happened on multiple occassions.
Jeanne says that she and her mother were threatened with a lawsuit after they asked to discontinue filming after the death of Jeanne’s father.
Jeanne’s lawsuit laments that these alleged threats made her already fragile mental state worse while she was in the grieving process.
"Defendants created this narrative and then for Dr. Nowzaradan to express disappointment to her for failing to follow the diet," the lawsuit reads.
The accusation continues: "And failing to obtain the necessary amount of weight loss to be a candidate for surgery."
In other words, Jeanne is saying that she was in no place to film due to an event beyond her control, but that she was forced to film and was then ridiculed.
Attorney Tony Buzbee is representing all five parties who are suing Megalomedia.
He has opened up to Starcasm about the case against the production company.
"I have spent a career changing corporate practices and I rarely lose,” Buzbee begins.
“Doctors are supposed to be medical professionals focused on patient welfare," he notes, "not instigators of ratings."
"Rather than focus on the welfare of the patients," Buzbee accuses, "the medical staff and producers of this show are instead focused on ratings."
"Although many find the show entertaining," he acknowledges.
He says that "because of the complete lack of aftercare and due to the way these people are treated, the show wreaks havoc on those that appear.”
Buzbee declared: “We intend to end this show, unless it makes dramatic changes."
Though Megalomedia has yet to publicly respond to the bulk of the lawsuits, they did respond to the suit filed by LB Bonner’s family.
"We were deeply saddened by his suicide in 2018," the production company stated in January.
They continued: "And continue to extend our sympathy and condolences to his family."
“However," Megalomedia announced, "the allegations of this lawsuit are without merit, are false and will be vigorously contested in court."
Without seeing the evidence for ourselves, it is of course impossible to declare complete certainty for either side in this lawsuit.
That said, four former stars and the family of a fifth suing one production company with similar complains is naturally going to raise suspicion.
It will be interesting to see financial records to determine if Megalomedia has paid the medical bills or if, as the plaintiffs claim, they have not.
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