Love Island’s controversies – punchgate, steamy romp and ‘bullying’ claims

Love Island has become one of the most watched TV shows in the last decade, bringing in millions of viewers per episode.

Having relaunched on ITV in 2015, the show follows a group of sexy singletons as they court each other in the hopes of finding love. However, the public are watching and those who are deemed to be the least compatible are dumped from the Island.

But despite the picture-perfect holiday as it might seem, Love Island has been at the centre of many a controversy in its ten previous seasons. During the show, viewers have watched on in horror as toxic behaviours have been shown and the eventual backlash from this, seeing viewing figures plummet.

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So, as the show gears up for an eleventh series, Daily Star looks at some of Love Island’s biggest controversies.

Movie Night rows

The infamous Movie Night episode in 2022 was hit with more than 2,500 complaints after viewers believed “misogynistic and controlling” behaviour was being demonstrated by some of the boys. The episodes, which aired on July 15 and concluded on July 17, featured the girls and boys sitting down to watch clips of what their partners got up to while they were in Casa Amor.

The challenge has become a catalyst in causing tension between the couples and this year was no different. The highest amount of complaints stemmed from Luca when he got into a heated exchange with Gemma after he was shown a clip of the brunette bombshell allegedly flirting with Billy, 23.

Luca slammed Gemma, saying: “You were f***ing flirting! And I was made out to look like an idiot for it.” He continued ranting to the boys: “Trust me when I say, if she wants to f***ing play games with me, I’ll play. I can’t be with someone like that, I’m sorry.”

After tuning into the first instalment of Movie Night, 167 viewers complained when footage was shown of Ekin-Su in bed with George Tasker. Davide Sanclimenti branded the Turkish actress a “liar” after the clip was shown as she claimed “nothing happened”.

To add to the slew of complaints, Ofcom was bombarded with 413 protests about “bullying and misogynistic behaviour from some of the male contestants” during a group game of dares. During the Suck and Blow challenge, it looked as though Tasha was being targeted by Luca and Dami Hope as they heavily criticised her behaviour towards her relationship with Andrew Le Page.

Luca chose Tasha when he was asked to choose the islander who is with their partner just to win the competition, while Dami went for Andrew when he was asked to rub the feet of the islander who has been walked over the most.

‘Bullying’ allegations

Love Island was hit with an influx of Ofcom complaints following the Snog, Marry, Pie challenge. Just a few days after Movie Night, more than 1,500 complaints were made following the challenge in which Tasha appeared to be targeted once again.

A spokesperson for Ofcom said: “On July 19 the majority of complaints were about alleged misogynistic behaviour from the male islanders towards the female islanders, including in the aftermath of the Snog, Marry, Pie challenge.

The challenge saw Luca and Dami both choose to pie Tasha after the pair had already aired their opinions on their fellow co-star – prompting viewers to accuse them of bullying. Davide Sanclimenti also pied Tasha in the challenge, but his response was because Tasha had called he and Ekin-Su the “fakest couple”, with Tasha expecting the pie from him.

However, Luca and Dami’s decision followed a number of swipes in Tasha’s direction, with Dami confessing he pied her because she usually “gets away with a lot of stuff” while Luca said: “I could give you a list, [of reasons] but I’ll let it go for today.”

Tasha was left in tears after the challenge, with fellow islanders agreeing the two boys took it “too far”. While the lads apologised to Tasha for their behaviour, they received heavy criticism from the public, including Gemma’s mum who said their treatment of Tasha was “close to bullying”.

Following the series ending, Ofcom officially decided not pursue the complaints further. In a statement, the governing body said it “carefully assessed” each complaint against its standards and decided not to act.

Punchgate

One Love Island contestant got into a physical “altercation” in 2016 and was swiftly axed from the villa. Malia Arkian was a late arrival during the show’s second season.

She and fellow Islander Kady McDermott were separated by security after a row which began with Malia first declaring an interest in Kady’s love interest Scott Thomas. After Kady spilled a glass of wine down Malia’s leg, the pair exchanged insults before Malia shoved Kady and security quickly stepped in to separate the pair.

In 2019, Kady claimed there was more to the fight than viewers at home saw. Posting to X, the influencer claimed she had been struck by Malia and was left with a bloody nose, writing: “She punched me in the nose after and gave me a nose bleed but they didn’t show it as too graphic.”

In her own tweet, Malia denied ever punching Kady and claimed Kady had “lied to Love Island producers” when she alleged that Malia had ‘given her a nose bleed in the toilet’.

Age gaps

The show was hit with more than 780 complaints in the first four weeks, with more than 200 of those coming from concern over the eight year age gap between Davide, 27 at the time, and a then-19-year-old Gemma. After Davide chose to couple up with Gemma , Love Island viewers claimed them being together “did not sit right” with them and made them feel “uncomfortable”.

The episode racked up 167 Ofcom complaints which was followed by a further 93 complaints after the pair shared their first kiss on June 12.

Addressing the notable age gap, Gemma said: “It’s not an issue for me at all. I feel like if it was, I wouldn’t have wanted to get to know you in the first place. And as I’ve said, I’ve been speaking to guys and seeing guys who are much older than me.”

X-rated romp

Terry Walsh and Emma-Jane Woodhams flagged Ofcom’s attention with their X-rated villa romp in 2016. The duo featured in the second season of the dating show, where their steamy over-the-covers sex session stunned their fellow Islanders and attracted seven Ofcom complaints.

Ofcom eventually cleared the scene and said in a statement: “The shots of the couple were very brief and relatively indistinct as a result of the use of a night vision camera. The tone was lightened by the focus on the other housemates’ reactions reduced the material’s potential to cause offence.”

Explaining her decision to have sex on top of the covers, Emma said that she had thought Love Island producers wouldn’t be able to air her and Terry having sex above the covers as airing their romp would constitute pornography. Alas, she was wrong.

Mental health crises

One of the largest complaints regarding the show was the alleged lack of mental health support from producers on the show. Nowadays, mental health workers and therapists are on standby 24/7, and Islanders are briefed on how social media could impact them both positively and negatively, so they know how to compose themselves when leaving the villa.

However, in previous years this reformed duty of care was not implemented and several ex-contestants spoke of their mental anguish of being on the show and returning to the real world. Many of the Islanders suffered with depression following the show, and sadly Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon took their own lives in 2019, with former host Caroline Flack doing the same in early 2020.

Following immense calls for a change in the duty of care, ITV brought in a new set of rules to look after contestants and how to cope with being filmed 24/7. Dr Paul Litchfield said at the time: “The Duty of Care arrangements for Love Island continue to evolve in the light of advances in scientific knowledge and awareness of the pressures young people face in establishing healthy relationships.”

He added: “That culture of continuous improvement ensures that Islanders are well placed to benefit from their experience of participating in one of the UK’s most popular TV shows.” Since then, the show has imposed these duty of care measures in a much more strict manner to ensure the mental well-being of those participating.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk