Former footballer and policeman Michael Boateng appeared on the Winter version of Love Island back in February 2020.
Looking to find romance on the show, the star soon became a much-loved contestant from the series and managed to survive on the show until day 41.
Mike provided entertainment and drama on the reality programme with his on off relationship with Leanne Amaning, his playful anecdotes with the other lads to finally finding love with contestant Priscilla Anyabu.
But although Mike was trying his best to navigate through the game while in the villa, back in the UK the young star was receiving negative press due to his previous role as a police officer.
(Image: ITV)
Rumours began to circulate that Michael had unlawfully lied to the police force to join the dating show, which was later revealed to be untrue.
Talking candidly about his stint on Love Island and how he has managed to regain a positive reputation since leaving the show, Michael has spoken exclusively to Daily Star about his experience and what he’s been up to since.
Discussing the negative press he received about his occupation, the Love Island hunk said: “It was frustrating more than anything because all of the negative press and anything shown in the media that we’ve now seen was all false.
“That kind of narrative was allowed to be pushed throughout my time on the show which was because the police knew that everything that was coming out was false.”
(Image: ITV)
He continued: “And they only chose to apologise and they only chose to release a statement after I have been exonerated and once I was cleared of everything.
“For me it was also annoying because if you guys would have done that while I’m going through it, it it maybe would have helped my public perception, because I struggled because of it.
“It definitely affected work afterwards and it affected my life in general because people perceived me that way because they are seeing things in the media.
“They wake up and read the news and they see ‘oh Michael Boateng’ or ‘this has been written about Michael Boateng’ and like I said it was just annoying.
(Image: PA)
“And now it has all come out that it was false, it’s too late,” he expressed.
“I know it has died down now, but there are still people that will cling on to that and cling onto the narrative of what they saw of me being played out on TV, for the most part I looked like a game player.”
“So it was almost like I was the villain in the show and I’m being made to look like a villain outside the show as well.
“The whole police thing just irritated me.”
(Image: ITV)
After several twists and turns and trying to make it to the final of Winter Love Island, Mike was booted off the show at the final hurdle.
But the star still managed to find love with Priscilla. Speaking on their relationship now, the star expressed that he prefers to now keep his love life private.
He said: “The relationship between us is beautiful, we’re so good together in terms of the journey that we had.
“Me and her will always be close.”
When giving his advice to the new contestants that are entering the show in June, the reality star said it’s best to be your authentic self.
He also let loose that there are some scenes that are often filmed again as producers want it to look a certain way for viewers.
“One example I can give is sometimes some things that we record, they might want us to do it again, maybe because producers want it to be seen a certain way.” he explained.
He added: “Reality TV is not always real.”
Since leaving the show, Michael has had success in a variety of projects. At the moment, the star is guest speaking to children in schools across the UK.
He has also been nominated for a national reality TV awards for Best Male.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
