Former reality TV star Deavan Clegg says she was forced to work long hours for a meager salary while filming for 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way.
Deavan and her ex, Jihoon Lee, were introduced to 90 Day Fiance viewers during Season 1 of The Other Way, which aired in 2019.
The former couple continued to share their storyline with viewers in Season 2 but have since walked away from filming reality television.
Now that Deavan’s contract with Sharp Entertainment has expired, she’s talking about the cons of airing her personal life on national TV.
Deavan conducted a Q&A in her Instagram Story, prompting her followers to ask her “anything” about her time on 90 Day Fiance.
One of the questions came from a fan who wanted to know how “staged” filming for the 90 Day Fiance franchise is.
Deavan Clegg dished on 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way scenes being ‘planned out’
According to Deavan, it’s a “difficult” question to answer, but she went into detail about scenes being planned ahead of time, particularly when it involved going somewhere such as a restaurant.
“Everything is planned out in advance,” Deavan wrote in her answer. “Any time we filmed at a location it was already booked and prepared by a location manager. We would just show up.”
Deavan explained that on-location visits need to be planned days or weeks in advance in order to secure filming permits. In fact, Deavan said that everything was planned ahead of time, including her food, which she says was ordered by producers earlier in the day.
The mom of three told her followers that producers would encourage dramatic storylines by saying things like, “okay tomorrow we are planning on taking you to a fish market and you can act surprised and culture shocked.”
Deavan talks ‘extremely long’ work days and being ‘severely underpaid’
In another slide, Deavan talked about the worst part of her experience filming for the 90 Day Fiance franchise. For Deavan, it was the grueling schedule, working “extremely long” hours, even filming for 12 to 14 hours on some days.
Not only did Deavan complain about the long work days, but she also griped about her compensation. The TLC alum told another follower that she was paid just $1,000 per episode.
Contrary to popular belief, Deavan also claimed that she was required to pay for her travel costs as well as parking and food during filming, although she was sometimes reimbursed for some things, such as clothing, but not until filming ended.
Her appearance at the Tell Alls, Deavan said, paid slightly more than regular episodes of 90 Day Fiance. Although she raked in $1,500 for the Tell All, she told her followers that she was still “Severely under paid for everything.”
“I was close to breaking even,” Deavan said of the money she put out for travel, food, and clothing compared to the amount she was reimbursed.
And, to make matters worse, Deavan said that she was “highly discouraged” by producers from doing promotional work and podcasts and was even asked to “stop doing [her] YouTube channel.”
“This is how I made money and they didn’t like that,” Deavan wrote.
Despite speaking out about the working conditions while filming for the 90 Day Fiance franchise and previously calling her experience “traumatizing,” Deavan recently admitted that she would be open to returning — but with contingencies.
The 26-year-old Utah native admitted that she’s been offered opportunities to film for TLC again but said the only way she would agree would be “If it showed the truth and our real story instead of a story planned out for views.”
90 Day Fiance: The Other Way airs on Mondays at 8/7c on TLC.