Reality TV star Magan Mourad has revealed she was hospitalized during filming for Season 2 of Netflix’s The Ultimatum: Queer Love, saying the emotional intensity of the process led to what she described as a physical collapse. On the What’s the Reality? podcast, Mourad and her fiancé, Dayna Mathews, discussed the profound psychological and physical toll of the show’s experimental format, which involved couples separating and forming trial marriages with other participants.“I just f—— felt so depleted. I couldn’t handle it anymore,” Mourad recalled, describing how an emotional breakdown and suspected low blood pressure led to her being rushed to the hospital.
The show challenges committed couples to pause their current relationships and take a “trial marriage” with fellow cast members. For Mourad and Mathews, both paused their long-term partnership to explore relationships with others – Magan with Haley Drexler, and Dayna with Mel Vitale. Despite the difficulties, the couple ultimately returned to each other, reuniting and becoming engaged under dramatic and emotionally charged circumstances.
The Toll of Emotional Separation
Mourad emphasized that the heartbreak she experienced stemmed from watching someone she deeply loved forge an intimate connection with another person. “It’s just hard because you love someone so much, and it’s the first time you want to spend your life with someone,” she said, her voice cracking. “I don’t want to let you go… you’re dating other people… it hurts, you know?”
The couple described the strangeness of finding freedom during a week-long stay in a hotel without their phones—an enforced disconnection from their world and each other. “I worked out at 11 at night, every night, just to remind myself who I am,” Magan shared. “I would basically walk with a buddy for every mundane thing—going to the gym, even using the bathroom.”
The physical consequences became severe. Magan reported feeling faint and dizzy after pushing herself through grueling workouts designed to keep her centered. Eventually, the film crew called for medical attention, and she was hospitalized overnight as a preventable but alarming health scare.
Queer Visibility in Reality TV
The Ultimatum: Queer Love breaks new ground by placing LGBTQ+ relationships at its center. Unlike the original Ultimatum series, which primarily represented straight couples, the Queer Love installment places queer identities at the forefront, reflecting a broader push in reality television to diversify relationship narratives and spotlight underrepresented communities.
Magan and Dayna’s story embodies many stressors unique to LGBTQ+ couples—queer identity stress, societal pressures, and navigating a heterosexual-centric relationship model. Their willingness to open up about mental and physical health consequences marks a rare moment of vulnerability in reality TV, where dramatic revelations are often superficial.
Stripped Down, Raw, and Real
Podcaster-host Amber Desiree “AD” Smith described the challenges participants face when phones are taken away and judgment is deferred to the production environment. For queer participants, that stripped-down isolation can exacerbate the emotional weight of separation and reinvention. “It’s not what you imagined it to be,” Dayna admitted, echoing Magan’s struggles. “It isn’t easy.”
Magan recalled that part of what tipped her was the loss of what she called “identity anchors”—the routines and touchstones that kept her mental health stable. “I didn’t realize how much energy I was expending,” she said. “I started freaking out.”
Moments like this highlight ongoing conversations around mental health support for reality TV participants. The rapid pace and emotional intensity are often discomforting at best and damaging at worst—particularly for queer individuals who may already feel vulnerable.
Love Rekindled, Engagement Announced
Despite the heartbreak posed by experimental relationships, Magan and Dayna ultimately returned to each other and became engaged. The podcast preview showcases their reflections on growth, communication, and emotional evolution. “When Dayna and I come together, we have a certain type of energy together,” she said. “Now we’re just understanding how to be better partners and what we need individually.”
Their engagement – set against the backdrop of Netflix’s emotionally rigorous environment – emphasizes queer resilience. The couple, like other queer participants, is rewriting the template of televised romance, where happy endings are too often reserved for straight couples.
Beyond the Screen: A Beacon for Queer Communities
Magan’s candid account brings queer narratives closer to authentic experience. While LGBTQ+ characters are increasing in scripted shows, queer representation in reality television remains rare. When it does appear, it often glosses over emotional complexity, sanitizing narratives to avoid controversy.
By sharing the unscripted high and low points of their relationship, including a trip to the hospital, Magan Mourad is humanizing queer love. She aligns with advocacy efforts that encourage nuanced inclusion rather than narrative tokenism. “I hope people who watch us understand that being queer in love isn’t always rainbow-bright,” Magan said. “It’s messy, it’s real, and it can be overwhelming –
but it’s still worth it.”
Moving Forward in Health and Healing
Magan revealed that following her hospitalization, she and Dayna focused on rebuilding their lives with new emotional tools. Therapy, mindfulness, and establishing daily wellness rituals are all part of their life-as-podcast—practices meant to support long-term relationship health.
The couple’s honesty is significant, offering lessons to queer viewers about mental-health self-care in the context of emotional upheaval. “For queer folks in relationships—it’s okay to feel broken by love,” Dayna said. “It’s in the rebuilding that you discover your resilience.”
Finale and Reflection
The Ultimatum: Queer Love Season 2 dropped on Netflix on July 2, featuring six same-sex and queer couples at various stages of commitment. Magan and Dayna may have captured headlines, but the series as a whole is a watershed moment in LGBTQ+ reality TV—amplifying love, identity, challenge, and growth in equal measure.
Their story speaks to a universal truth—that love, especially under scrutiny and separation, can cause profound emotional pain, but also imaging that same love can spring forward stronger. “We came back to each other,” Magan said. “And we’re trying to do better, for us and for queer visibility in love.”
