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Ex-Love Islanders on Mental Health and Inclusion on the Show

Past Love Islanders Share What It's Really Like to Be a Contestant

Just like that, as of 28 June, the Love Island-shaped holes in our hearts were filled, and this year, more than ever, we've seen former Love Island contestants speaking out about their experiences on the show and how it's affected them. The discussion surrounding mental health and Love Island is one that's been debated at length in recent years, with ITV's duty-of-care standards coming under fire for lack of protection and support for show participants.

Love Island presenter Caroline Flack tragically died by suicide in 2020, a year after Mike Thalassitis's death by suicide in 2019 and Sophie Gradon's the previous year led many to call for producers to offer more support for those on the show and their families.

Last month, ahead of season seven, ITV released its duty-of-care protocols to the public, detailing welfare plans in place aiming to support Love Island participants before, during, and after filming. But many wonder whether it's enough — former contestants included.

Contestants who have actively spoken out about their experiences and given insight into what it's really like to be a contestant on the show include Olivia Attwood, Amber Rose Gill, Alex George, and, more recently, Niall Aslam. Read on to hear them share the good and the bad about the Love Island experience.

Image Source: ITV

Priya Gopaldas and Kaz Kamwi

Sadly, the online abuse that Love Island contestants receive has been well reported, but what people may not realise is that whilst the contestants are on the show, they're not the ones seeing the abuse. It's their families and friends who have to deal with it as they monitor their accounts from back home.

Priya Gopaldas and Kaz Kamwi, both from series 7, spoke on an episode of BBC's Panorama about the online abuse their social media accounts received whilst on the show, and how that affected their families. "I think it was hard just because obviously [Kaz's] Instagram was on my phone, so I think I saw a lot more than people realise that I did," Kaz's sister Banji explained on the show. "And I didn't want to go downstairs to my mum and be like oh here's another one, here's another one ... I kind of just had to be like block and delete, block and delete. So I just think it was a lot to handle."

Priya's friends monitored her account and had a similar experience. "I actually think it was more difficult for them seeing all of the trolling than it was for me because I expected it and I don't think they were fully prepared for it. Even though I'd informed them that there was going to be this sort of this behaviour, I think they felt quite defensive, they wanted to, you know, send messages back."

Image Source: Getty Images / Kate Green

Alex George

Alex George has become a public advocate for mental health since participating in season four of Love Island. Consistently using his social media platform to encourage mental health discussions and education for young people specifically, the physician has since been appointed Youth Mental Health Ambassador to advise the government. He's used unconventional platforms like OnlyFans to spread mental health support.

"I think go in for the right reasons and don't underestimate what it can be like coming out," Dr George advised contestants, according to the Express. He added: "I think it's very important to have that grounding, not to get carried away. Look after yourself when you're on there and just know what you're getting yourself into. . . . You will face criticism and that kind of stuff, being aware of that stuff and not going into it, I guess naively, is important."

Image Source: Getty / Gareth Cattermole

Amber Rose Gill

"When you come off a show like that, it's such a shock. With people recognising you and you've got a huge platform on social media, you don't even know that you're supposed to have management," said series five winner Amber Rose Gill in a recent This Morning interview. She went on to explain her thoughts towards social media after leaving the villa. "It's a huge shock because you don't see your growth or how many people are watching. I went in the villa, and I had four thousand followers, and I came out, and I had two million. It's really important to make sure you've got those things that keep you grounded — that's what's important for me," Gill explained.

Image Source: Getty / David M. Benett

Yewande Biala

Yewande Biala recently shared her thoughts on the latest season of the show, tweeting during the first episode, "Rooting for @kazkamwi so much! It's literally the ghetto in there!" in response to Kaz Kamwi being picked last in the first recoupling of the season. This came after both Biala herself and Samira Mighty were picked last in the series they featured on. Love Island has come under fire on numerous occasions for the lack of inclusivity within the show.

Image Source: Getty / Jeff Spicer

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Samira Mighty

Samira Mighty has been extremely vocal about the lack of inclusivity within the villa during her time on the show and the season after with the only Black woman being Yewande Biala. "I was obviously the token [Black woman] on the show, it was easy to work that out. I only had to look at the line of girls when I arrived at the villa," Mighty said in an interview with The Mail on Sunday. She followed up by saying, "ITV are desperate to be diverse, but that is coming across in a way that is quite unfortunate for them. Yewande is a token, too, it's obvious what is happening."

Image Source: Getty / Samir Hussein

Niall Aslam

Niall Aslam recently called out the producers of Love Island, telling them to practise what they preach after the official Love Island Instagram page released a statement in the wake of trolling and death threats to Chloe Burrows's social media accounts, which were being monitored by her friends and family at the time. Burrows's arrival on the show and decision to couple up with Aaron Francis meant his original partner, Shannon Singh, was voted off the island after just two days, leaving many fans upset. Under the official Instagram statement, Aslam commented: "Don't watch the show anymore after everything but assuming you've messed with someone mentally and posting about being nice? Practice what you preach."

This came after Aslam — who appeared on series four in 2018 with the likes of Kendall Rae Knight and Dani Dyer — was flown to a psychiatric ward after after suffering from stress-induced psychosis just nine days into his stay on the island. "I spent two weeks there on the psychiatric ward, where I was placed on lots of medication to try to help me recover, followed by months of care from the crisis team at home," he recently wrote in an article for Grazia.

Image Source: Getty / David M. Benett

Shaughna Phillips

Series six star Shaughna Phillips recently opened up to The Independent about feeling pressured by producers during her time in the villa for the winter series, shot in South Africa. "When we done the soldier drill, when we had to dress up in camouflage and whatnot, I think I might have just gone on my date with Connagh [Howard], and at the end of the drill we had to choose a boy to kiss, and producers took me to the side and said, 'We think you should kiss Connagh rather than Callum [Lee Jones]." Phillips went on to explain that she told producers that she didn't want to kiss Howard. She said she was pressured for a further 20 minutes before they stopped asking.

Image Source: Getty / Dave J Hogan

Olivia Attwood

In a Q&A last year, Olivia Attwood answered a few fan questions on her Instagram about her time on Love Island. Attwood said the one question she'd continuously been asked by fans was whether the show was scripted or not. "Do this one first because it's come up literally 1000 times NO it is not scripted," she wrote, according to the Daily Mirror. "The only thing you may be told by a producer is where to sit to have your chats etc, and that's purely for camera angles. Your not told what to say or who to pick, it's all up to us."

Image Source: Getty / Lia Toby

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