Kari Bravata is opening up about the troubling experience she endured while filming Fox’s extreme makeover reality competition, The Swan.
Hulu dropped a documentary, The Swan: Behind the Mirror, about the controversial early aughts reality show that explores Kari and other cast members’ journeys post-reality TV.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Kari revealed that she was taking antidepressants before joining the 2004 reality series. Because of the length of production, approximately 90 days, she could only bring a limited supply of her prescription before needing a refill.
According to Kari, production told her they were waiting for her prescription refill. Her family, however, apparently had a different understanding of what happened.
“My mom yesterday was talking to me. She said, ‘I think what made me the most mad when you were at that show is when they took your antidepressants.’”
Kari said she had forgotten about the incident until recently, when her mother brought it up. She then remembered that her medication had allegedly been “held from me for two weeks.”
“I called my mom, and I said, ‘I need a refill,’ during one of my five-minute calls. And she said, ‘I already sent it. It’s there.'”
Kari believes production intentionally withheld the medication because she wasn’t providing the dramatic reactions producers wanted from her.
“They held it for two weeks because I wasn’t giving enough reaction and they wanted to see… I don’t know,” she claimed.
The Swan: Behind the Mirror is now available to stream on Hulu.
