Love Island’s first new contestant has been confirmed, with beauty queen Sharon Gaffka landing in the villa in the hopes of finding love.
Her bio read: “Sharon has conquered beauty pageants, worked on government policies and is now ready to take on the villa!”
Sharon, 25, is an ambassador for The Young Women’s Trust, an organisation that campaigns for economic justice for women.
Originally from Didcot, she has also competed in beauty pageants in the past, crowned Miss International UK in 2018.
The new Love Island beauty queen won’t be having sex in the villa, reported The Sun.
According to a friend of the soon-to-be Islander, she won’t be following in Zara Holland’s footsteps.
Sharon will be entering the villa five years after Zara Holland lost her Miss Great Britain title.
Zara Holland took part in ITV2’s Love Island, where she went on a date with fellow contestant Alex Bowen and had sex with him.
Zara was stripped of her Miss GB title because of this, which proved to be controversial.
Friends of the multi-lingual lawyer will be championing women’s rights on the dating show.
Sharon is an ambassador for The Young Women’s Trust — a feminist organisation working to achieve economic justice for young women.
Sharon is both brains and beauty and studied law at Birkbeck University.
And she also worked on the launch of the Test and Trace system last year.
A source told The Sun: “Sharon is intensely political and a big campaigner around equality and women’s rights.
“She’s always talked of wanting to work in politics so is likely to use her platform on the show to talk about issues which she feels passionately about.
As a pageant girl and beauty queen, it seems that Miss International UK will be well equipped to cope with the limelight she is about to enter into.
Speaking about her pageantry success, she said:
“People are going to talk about you, no matter what you do.
“So you might as well do whatever brings you joy, and live your best life.”
(Image: Sharon Gaffka/Instagram)
ITV bosses announced that Love Island contestants will experience an increased “duty of care” from the show.
They have hired clinical psychologist, Dr Matthew Gould, who will review their procedures and keep an eye on the Islanders.
The new care procedures come after Sophie Gradon from the 2016 series, took her own life two years after appearing on the show.
Mike Thalassitis also took his own life in 2019, after taking part in the show two years prior.
The new series is set to debut next week, with a gaggle of singletons heading to Mallorca for the rest of the summer.
Rumours had swirled about the stars of the new line-up in recent weeks, with speculation over dentists, celebrity offspring and NHS doctors getting picked up by casting agents.
Thankfully, ITV bosses have now decided to put fans out of their misery, introducing us to the newest stars of the show on Instagram.
Laura Whitmore will return to host the show, and her husband, Iain Stirling, will make a spectacular comeback as narrator.
The show’s official return date was confirmed on This Morning last week, with hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield “receiving a text” like the cast of the show.
It read: “Love Island is back! Monday 28th June 9pm, ITV2 and ITV Hub.”
Finishing with the hashtags #ThisIsNotADrill and #CrackOn, Holly couldn’t wait to tune in, as she remarked: “This is exciting, isn’t it? Brilliant!”
(Image: ITV)
The show’s return is a welcome one for fans, who have faced a Love Island-shaped hole in their lives since the 2020 winter series.
Last summer’s edition was scrapped due to the coronavirus pandemic, but show bosses were determined to go ahead with filming this summer.
The contestants will quarantine before going into the villa, and the crew will be employing safety measures to prevent the spread of Covid.
Love Island begins on June 28 on ITV2.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
