Times Wife Swap Stars Sued The Show
What started off as a British reality show in 2003, "Wife Swap" made its way to viewers across the pond in the U.S. by 2004 and resulted in multiple spinoffs and revivals across networks. The guilty pleasure show had a simple idea behind it: swap the two wives from families of very different walks of life. The wife would have to live in the opposite home, following their rules, for a week, until the wife could then set up her own rules, usually resulting in a familial clash. After two weeks, the episode would typically end with a lesson on social and cultural differences brought on by the swapped wives.
While reality shows have a tendency of not being so true-to-life, "Wife Swap" contestants were very much real-life families. During its roughly nine-season stint, the series aired a ton of controversial moments caught on camera from families. There was also "Celebrity Wife Swap" and a reboot, which was ultimately canceled in 2020 due to Paramount's network shift. Turns out, being on the show actually created problems for multiple contestants as they brought lawsuits against the show.
One contestant didn't get the "wife" he had in mind
"Wife Swap" first found itself at the center of a lawsuit in 2005 from an episode that didn't even make it on air. Jeffrey Bedford and his wife Melissa, from Haileyville, Oklahoma, signed up to be contestants on the reality show in 2004, but they seemingly did not read the fine print of their contract and the show's definition of "wife," per the McAlester News-Capital.
When Melissa flew to her new home for two weeks, she surprisingly found herself to be in the home of a male, same-sex couple and that her replacement sent to Haileyville was a homosexual man. Reportedly, Jeffrey tried to call off the filming immediately but "Wife Swap" producers threatened to sue him and not tell him where Melissa was. According to Melissa, the experience of living with another man was so "traumatic" that he didn't sleep for three days and needed to seek medical attention. She told the McAlester News-Capital when she returned from filming that "It was our worst nightmare,".
Jeffrey then filed a $10.2 million lawsuit against ABC, its parent company Walt Disney, and production company RDF media for mental stress, humiliation, hospital bills, and punitive damages, according to the Evening Standard. However, a spokesperson for RDF said, "As with all contributors to 'Wife Swap,' Mr Bedford was made fully aware of what was going to happen, including the fact his new 'wife' might be of either sex."
A teen sued Wife Swap for embarrassing her
The Bedfords weren't the only litigious "Wife Swap" family. Reality show fans will remember the spoiled teen trope from the early aughts. Shows like "My Super Sweet 16" and the subsequent "Exiled" revealed hard-to-watch antics of overindulged rich kids. It seems "Wife Swap" wanted to cash in on that trope as well with their 2008 episode "Boss/Guastaferro."
The episode featured 15-year-old pageant queen, Alicia Guastaferro, who was dubbed the "princess of pageantry" on the show. Throughout the episode, Guastaferro parades around in her lavish gowns and heavy makeup and infamously says, "I do feel sorry for people that are not gorgeous people." Another eyebrow-raising moment comes when Guastaferro's mother, Karen, says that they keep a Christmas tree up year-round because "every day is Christmas" for Guastaferro and she's "such a pleasurable child and deserves it."
After the episode aired, Guastaferro said she found herself the subject of bullying and filed a $100 million lawsuit against ABC and Walt Disney for the show's depiction of her, according to the New York Daily News. The lawsuit claimed that "Wife Swap" staged scenes to "maximize [Guastaferro's] public embarrassment," including scenes of her dad spray-tanning her legs and involving the year round Christmas tree. The lawsuit also said that Guastaferro suffered from panic attacks and was forced to transfer schools due to the episode. The lawsuit was settled in 2018, but the details of the settlement were not disclosed to the press, per Syracruse.com