Love Island's biggest controversies – X-rated romp, punchgate and 'bullying' claims

Love Island has seen its fair share of controversies over the years.

The ITV2 show dropped its civilian reboot in June 2015 and soon amassed a global following of millions of viewers.

With eight UK series now under its belt plus one winter season, the show has provided plenty of drama.

There have also been occasions where the villa drama has spilled over into real life, such as the latest controversy which has engulfed last year’s Islanders Rachel Finni and Brad McClelland in a ‘bullying’ row.

From ‘punch’ claims to Ofcom-alerting romps, Daily Star takes a look inside Love Island’s biggest ever controversies.

Rachel Finni ‘bullying’ claims

Last year’s Islanders have brought the drama forward in a recent ‘bullying’ row.

The controversy began when Brad, Jake Cornish, Tyler Cruickshank and Aaron Francis took part in an Instagram Live video.

Discussing Rachel on the live stream, Brad said: “Bombshell,” and quizzically nodded his head.

As the others laughed, he read out a comment which said: “Rachel, yet again, not a bombshell.”

Reacting to the cruel jibes on Instagram on Wednesday, Rachel said she felt “bullied” to such an extent that she for the first time ‘regretted going on the show’.

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Rachel was later defended by her co-stars Kaz Kamwi and Shannon Singh.

After public apologies were shared by Brad and Tyler on their Instagram stories, Rachel spoke to Daily Star about the controversy.

Of their apologies, she said: “It’s all forced.

“It’s an apology so they don’t get cancelled and so they don’t lose brand deals.

“It’s not an apology because they’re truly sorry about what they said about me and that they won’t do it again.”

Yewande Biala vs Lucie Donlan

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Lucie Donlan’s Instagram comments about Yewande Biala caused a spat between the former Islanders in January last year.

The duo took part in the 2019 series of Love Island but feuded on social media after Lucie claimed Yewande “always bullied” her in the villa in a resurfaced Instagram comment.

Quick to address Lucie’s claims, Yewande responded on Twitter.

She wrote: “You refused to call me by my name because it was too ‘hard to pronounce’, now you wanna say I bullied you!”

Yewande’s claims were supported by her fellow Islanders Amber Gill and Amy Hart.

Lucie later revealed she had received “death threats” from angry fans and said there was “nothing sinister” about her comments.

She told Mail Online: “I said on the show I had trouble pronouncing Yewande’s name, it’s just what I’m like.

“I asked if I could use a shortened, abbreviated version of her name instead as a term of endearment. There’s nothing sinister to it.

“I regret how just a few old comments sent 18 months ago has snowballed like this and got out of hand, and drummed up some needless negativity.”

Terry and Emma’s 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.

Kady McDermott/Malia Arkian 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 Twitter, 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’.

Shannon Singh’s ‘cruel’ axe

Another Love Island contestant to have a memorably short stay in the villa was last year’s OG Islander Shannon Singh.

The Scottish OnlyFans star, 23, was brutally dumped from the series after just two days.

The savage and surprise dumping attracted over 90 Ofcom complaints but was eventually cleared by the broadcasting standards agency.

Following the series’ end, Shannon also alleged that she had been “mugged off” during the Love Island reunion.

Of her limited screen time, she complained: “They mic’ed me up, briefed me on questions and then completely disregarded me, which was fine.

“I just thought, after how they dumped me, I thought I’d get some better treatment.”

Love Island airs nightly on ITV2 and ITVBe at 9pm

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk