‘1D fans call me a home-wrecker,’ admits Lauren Richardson

Lauren Richardson was the envy of millions of girls worldwide when she was spotted holding hands and snuggling up to Zayn Malik on a trip to Thailand back in March.

However, Lauren, also known as ‘tattoo girl’, was brought back to reality in the most recent episode of Love Island: she was left mortified as no one came forward to pick her.

"This is a bit awkward isn’t it?" the East Londoner uttered in response. Later in the episode she broke down in tears confessing that she feels like "the ugly duckling of the group".

As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, lonely Lauren has to cope with the rest of the islanders gossiping about her much-publicised relationship with the former One Direction heartthrob.

It seems that for most of the show the rumour surrounding that photo of Lauren and Zayn was the only thing the 11 other contestants could talk about. Ms Richardson tried to control the gossip, reasoning that "I didn’t sleep with him," and that "there was just a picture of us holding hands when we came out of the nightclub".

According to the 26-year-old, the whole incident was blown out of proportion, but that hasn’t stopped her fellow islanders keeping the rumours circulating.

She says she is also still facing heavy criticism from One Direction’s fans, explaining on the show: "My Instagram is the worst. I will post a picture on Instagram and they will be like: 'Oh we hate you, you're a home-wrecker, we want to kill you." Yikes!

Luckily it wasn’t all doom-and-gloom for Lauren as later in the show she was paired up with the cheeky Joshua.

At least Zayn’s fiancé, Little Mix's Perrie Edwards, 21, doesn’t seem to be worrying too much about the TV programme either. She attended the Frankie And Benny's Rays Of Sunshine Concert in London with her bandmates on the very night that Love Island first aired.