Australian MAFS star may sue for portrayal as villain

A contestant on MAFS Australia has said she is considering suing for being portrayed as a villain on the reality TV show after being inspired by a recent court ruling in favour of a contestant on a similar reality style TV show.

Speaking to radio station Hit 105 the ex-contestant Davina Rankin said she was disgruntled with broadcaster Channel Nine and the production company Endemol Shine Australia after being show in a negative light on the show last year.

"I would [sue] now that I know you can," she said. "To be honest, when it was all going down, I actually had a few friends that are lawyers and I got them to look over my contract and these contracts are so hectic, you're pretty much handing over your life. They own you."

In publicity and marketing material for the show Rankin was described as 'TV's biggest villain', but due to the extensive nature of the contract she signed to appear on the show she admitted winning a dime could be difficult.

"It's really had to try and get anything out of it because they've kind of covered their butt in every way," she said.

Rankin reckons the way she was presented on the show had caused her reputational damage she had struggled to overcome.

"'I couldn't go to events, I didn't even look at my phone, I didn't leave my house for months. Even people from my series that were not as villianised as much as me are still going through trauma."

Davina Rankin

Rankin's fellow contestant Dean Wells said that the court siding with the contestant of House Rules could open legal "floodgates".

"It totally could, it happens a lot," wells told radio station Nova 96.9. "I spoke out about it and I've had five to six different reality TV people reach out to me and say, "Yeah, the same thing happened to me". So it could open the floodgates for sure."

However he ruled out having a day in court.

"Personally, I won't be taking any further action," he said. "I do take responsibility. These days I'm fine with it but some people have suffered, especially from the last season of MAFS and my season of MAFS. I know some people are really struggling so I reckon there might be some cases there."

The possibility of court action from ex-contestants is occuring after House Rules contestant Nicole Prince took the renovation show to court for being portrayed as a bully and won yesterday.

Ruling in her favour the Workers Compensation Commission (WCC) released what has been described as a "damning" 27 page report saying that as an "employee" of Channel Seven she suffered 'psychological / psychiatric injury'. The station was ordered to pay for her medial treatments.

There is now speculation that more unhappy reality stars could be heading to the courts.