Borrowers on the hook for millions after Ont. private lending collapse involving former child star’s company

The owner of the boutique Hotel Julie, star of a 2023 Crave television series based in Stratford, Ont., is one of a dozen borrowers facing demands for millions of dollars in unpaid debts amid one of the largest private lending collapses in Canadian history.

Jacob Norris Tayler (also known as Jake Tayler or Taylor) and Paula Rae McFarlane had their hotel star as the subject of the 2023 show Staying Inn: Hotel Julie, but in recent weeks the couple has been ordered by Ontario courts to pay back more than $452,000 owed to five different lenders who accepted promissory notes from their real estate investment businesses based in London, Ont. The orders came in the form of default judgments, meaning Mr. Tayler and Ms. McFarlane did not contest the claims.