'Bridgerton' has been one of Netflix's biggest hits in recent years, but one actress from the period dramedy has an axe to grind with the streamer.

Ruby Barker - who played Marina Thompson in Season 1 and Season 2 of the hit romance series - claims that both Netflix and the show's production company Shondaland failed to adequately support her when she suffered two mental breakdowns.

English actress Barker - whose character is a cousin of the Featheringtons who causes scandal in Regency-era London when she falls pregnant - says that she suffered the first 'psychotic break' after filming had wrapped on Season One, and the second in 2022.

"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 even emailed me to ask me if I’m okay or if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support. Nobody," she said, in an interview with Oxford University’s LOAF Podcast.

She added that her mental state had begun to decline during filming, and her frame of mind was impacted by the ostracisation that her character experiences.

"During filming, I was deteriorating," she said. "It was a really tormenting place for me to be because my character was very alienated, very ostracised, on her own under these horrible circumstances."

"When I went into hospital a week after shooting ‘Bridgerton’ Season 1, it was really covered up and kept on the down-low because the show was going to be coming out," she added. "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 these engagements to do… My life was changing drastically overnight and yet there was still no support and there still hasn’t been any support all that time. So I was trying really, really hard to act like it was ok and that I could work and that it wasn’t a problem."

In the same interview, Barker said that she felt pressurised to promote the "bubbly and fun" show during a traumatic time, as she was worried that it would affect her future work prospects if she declined.

Netflix and Shondaland have not yet publicly responded to Barker's claims.

See the full interview below: