On the reality show Lock Upp, a few contestants called Mandana Karimi a "gold digger" after she talked about her past. She later reacted to the statements and said, "I may look fancy but I am spoiling myself with my money, what I have earned. As far as my dating is concerned, yes, I have dated powerful men. But it is not for their money. It is on record, I have broken up with a powerful man because it wasn't worth my time or life. In fact, many times my things have gone. They have ruined my name and my life. Just like my ex."
Mandana Karimi also added, "I know what I have done. I know who I have loved and with whom I have been in a relationship and how it was."
It was Ali Merchant, who went up in front of the camera and talked about Mandana Karimi. He said, "I am not directly calling her a gold digger. But she has similar traits of a gold digger. She looks for a prey, earns their sympathy, gets close, makes them hear her sob story, and then befriends them like she tried to do with Zeeshan and me."
In the previous episode of Lock Upp, Mandana Karimi had revealed that after her divorce, she was in a relationship with a director and was also pregnant. Mandana was earlier married to Gaurav Gupta, but they ended their marriage within a few months.
Lock Upp is streaming on MXPlayer and ALTBalaji.