Selena Gomez recently revealed that filming had wrapped for season two of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why – but this news has seriously angered a father whose daughter committed suicide after watching the show’s first season.
In an interview with RadarOnline, John Herndon said, “I’m still completely disgusted. Selena makes me sick. She is an extremely disturbed individual to think that this show has any kind of redeeming social value at all.”
John and his wife, Donna, found their 15-year-old daughter, Bella, hanging in her closet on April 18 – she was rushed to the hospital, and died 10 days later.
RadarOnline has reported that shortly after Bella’s funeral, John learned that Bella had binge-watched 13 Reasons Why before her death.
John has claimed that the show triggered his daughter, who battled depression, and he desperately tried to stop the show from being renewed for a second season.
“Remember that there are teens out there that are in a little darker place and these could be your friends, your sisters,” he said.
“Selena Gomez and Netflix need to understand that not everybody’s going to understand this very well. Some people who are battling with depression, this could catch them at the wrong time, creating what is called the trigger event.”
John said he has reached out to Selena and her team via her website, www.selenagomez.com, but he received no response.
“I asked that she remove her support and get Netflix to stop,” he said. “I received no response.”
“I’ve seen too many posts by the creators who indignantly say it’s helped more people than it’s hurt. How many people have to be hurt before somebody aside from me stands up and says, ‘You know, this is wrong.’”
He also slammed both Selena and Netflix as “hypocritical”, as Netflix fired Kevin Spacey and Danny Masterson after allegations of sexual harassment.
“They made those decisions to make themselves look like a socially responsible company yet they are making a product about people who are hurt and how they can hurt themselves,” he said.
The father also hit out at Selena for speaking up about her own health struggles.
“She has spared no expense rattling her own saber about her kidney transplant. She talked about how painful it was and spent significant effort getting that ‘oh poor me’ out there. That’s just disgusting.”
Finally, John claimed that if he could he would sue everyone involved in the show, by bringing forth a huge liability and wrongful death suit.
“Suing a billion-dollar company like Netflix is not within my means right now unless there are other like-minded individuals that want to engage collectively together to bring a suit against them,” said Herndon.
John said he would name, “Selena, Netflix, the show director, screenwriter – anybody I could think of. I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
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