The fifth series of Love Island may have ended, but life is only just beginning for the contestants on the outside.
The Islanders have returned to reality and are gathering that coin with sponsorships, TV shows and public appearances in clubs.
This years' group are charging quite the high amount to grace an event with their presence, and we're a bit shook.
According to The Sun, Curtis Pritchard and Tommy Fury . are the top earners, charging 10,000 pounds each to attend an event.
It was all smiles when they returned to the UK, but who's going to bring the drama tonight? Love Island: The Reunion at 9pm on @ITV2#LoveIslandpic.twitter.com/3Zgoi8pEfo
The publication contacted the agents of 2019's contestants to enquire about an appearance at a 21st birthday party, and boxer Tommy was able to charge a whopping £10k for a two-hour appearance.
The runner up of the show has people to see and things to do, and time is money after all. According to The Sun, professional dancer Curtis charges the same, but also requests a driver and a hotel.
Villa villain Michael Griffiths, who didn't even make the final, charges £2,500 per hour to show up.
Sherif Lanre, who was kicked out of the villa after a mere nine days, charges a shocking £5,000 for appearances.
Maybe because of the mystery surrounding him, but that seems like ridiculous money to us. Yewande Biala also charges £5,000, while winners Amber Gill and Greg O'Shea have yet to share an appearance fee.
The pair have the £50,000 cash prize, so they're not exactly begging for money. The cast need to make cash before their celebrity status shrinks, though.
The Love Island reunion is airing on Sunday, which has followed the finalists this week as they settle back into their normal lives once more, but one contestant won't be present.
We're gaggin' to see Curtis Pritchard and Maura Higgins's trip to Ireland, specifically Longford, which should be painfully awkward.
Mrs Higgins took more of a shine to Ovie Soko than Curtis, so that should be entertaining to see.
Greg O'Shea is also with Amber Gill in her hometown of Newcastle, which should be interesting. The adorable pair won the show, exceeding expectations, and split the prize money between them.
Sunday will bring all of the islanders back together again, despite some contestants being on the show for a couple of days (Callum McLeod- we mean yourself).
Remember Sherif Lanre? He's been banned from taking part, even though he was one of the original islanders. Lanre was removed from the villa after just nine days for breaking the rules.
The rule turned out to be accidentally kicking Molly-Mae in the groin and making a weird joke about it ('cunt punt'), and NOT masturbating in the hot tub like everyone said.
Sherif is still eligible for the 'aftercare' treatment that every islander is entitled to receive, but his contract ended so he will take no part in the reunion.
A source told The Sun: "Sherif is gutted. He was really looking forward to having the chance to reunite with the other Islanders who became his friends during the villa.
"It’s hard to fathom why they wouldn’t want him as he was so popular during his short stint on the show. He made a mistake and apologised, so why he is still be punished is hard to fathom."
A spokesman for Sherif said: "It would have been nice for Sherif to see his friends at the reunion; it’s a shame ITV feel this strongly against him attending."
ITV also released a statement confirming the news;
"Sherif left this series of Love Island by mutual agreement after breaking the rules and there are no plans for him to appear at this weekend’s Aftersun Reunion."
Dani Dyer has revealed one of the Love Island villa's more…interesting…safety rules and we're pretty surprised by it.
Despite the gig looking like one of the easiest in the world, with everyone lazing about in the sun all day, the daughter of Danny Dyer has revealed that their time in the sun was monitored.
The 23-year-old said that the health of contestants was hugely important to the team, with the producers placing strict regulations on the amount of time they spent in the sun and their water consumption.
The actress explained to Hello Magazine that; "It is so hot and you have first aid that come in like twice a day" adding that "they are always on your case, there is sun tan lotion everywhere, they are always on at you about drinking water."
The former Love Island winner, who coupled up with Jack Fincham last year, disclosed that:
"They really do look after you in there, you are like little babies. You come out and you want someone to say to you 'Dani, do you want some water?'."
The 2018 winner opened up about facing reality when she emerged from the villa;
"When I first came out, that was really surreal to me, like the first moment I came out the villa, because obviously I had no contact with the outside world, I had no idea what was going on and to come out and get everyone sort of knowing you and thrust into it all, that was probably the most difficult moment."
Other rules involve no masturbating, eating lunch and dinner at specific times, no reading books or magazines, no showering at night, only two alcoholic drinks (no spirits though) on a 'big night', no unprotected sex, chats must be scheduled and interesting, no nudity allowed, no discriminating, no drunken sex and no waxes.
The whole Sherif drama is firmly over, and we STILL don't have answers about why he was kicked out of the Love Island villa. We enjoy a good mystery but this is getting ridiculous.
According to the man himself, it was "a case of poor judgement", and we'll most likely never hear anything else. Did he break the solo sex rule? Did he leak secrets on his phone? Is it about a sponsorship deal?
We honestly can't sleep at night without knowing some answers. Sherif is now back in the UK, and The Sunare claiming that two bodyguards have been stationed outside his London home since his return.
Image: Instagram/@sherif_lanre
A spokesperson for Love Island has since responded to the claims that producers have hired 24-hour security for Sherif Lanre by saying;
"Security is provided to assist families as part of our duty of care," a rep for the show told Digital Spy.
Faked messages from Sherif leaked the other day, stating that the 20-year-old fought with Anton and was removed.
Sherif and ITV producers released a vague statement following his removal;
"In a case of poor judgement, I broke the villa rules and as a result agreed with the producers that it was best for me to leave the villa," Sherif said.
"I regret that I didn't conduct myself in the right way and, as a 20 year old guy, it's something I know I will take on board and learn from. I really enjoyed my time in the villa and look forward to catching up with everyone on the outside," Sherif continued.
Twitter rumours:
“Sherif Lanre snuck his own phone into the villa”
“Sherif was caught masturbating in the jacuzzi”
“Sherif got into a fight with Anton & broke Anton’s wrist, Anton will be back in the villa in two days time”
Since his return, he thanked supporters and family on Twitter and Instagram:
"Thank you to everyone including my friends and family for the support I've come back to. I appreciate you all and hope I provided some good, positive moments during my time on Love Island and for anyone wondering I'm all good #ItIsWhatItIs."
We've all been left totally in the dark about Sherif Lanre's strange Love Island exit, with conspiracy theories and faked texts coming in left, right and centre.
The 20-year-old allegedly broke the villa rules, but the exact reason has yet to be explained.
Both Sherif and ITV released statements yesterday, saying; "After breaking the villa rules, Sherif had conversations with the producers and it was mutually agreed that he would leave the Love Island villa."
— Love Island Reactions (@LoveIsIandUK) June 11, 2019
Sherif himself said: "In a case of poor judgement, I broke the villa rules and as a result agreed with the producers that it was best for me to leave the villa."
"I regret that I didn't conduct myself in the right way and, as a 20 year old guy, it's something I know I will take on board and learn from. I really enjoyed my time in the villa and look forward to catching up with everyone on the outside."
However, the young chef and semi-pro rugby player has now broken his Instagram silence after leaving the ITV2 show.
Instagram: @sherif_lanre
In a statement on his Instagram Story, he wrote: "Thank you to everyone including my friends and family for the support I've come back to.
"I appreciate you all and hope I provided some good positive moments during my time on Love Island and for anyone wondering I'm all good."
He also included two cheeky hashtags; "It is what it is" and "Bigger things to come". The Londoner stayed quiet on the reason behind his axeing.
Speculation has been off the charts as to why he was kicked off the show, and his removal was totally ignored on last night's episode. Ian Stirling, the show narrator, simply said;
"Earlier today, following conversations with the producers, Sherif left the villa. But for other Islanders, it's another day in paradise."
Many think he broke the solo sex rule in the shower, others said he was too anti-social and refused to speak to people and some said he was physically fighting with Anton.
With Love Island in full swing, it's time to reshuffle the dating cards by throwing two new hopefuls into the mix. Maura Higgins, from Longford, and Elma Pazar.
With all the Sherif drama, the producers are seemingly distracting us from this strange twist by adding two new ladies to potentially make or break some couples.
Longford's Maura Higgins is a 'grid girl' and model, unsurprisingly. The 28-year-old describes her type as personality-driven, and loyal (Anton definitely won't be successful with that second trait).
"I would go for personality more than anything. I would definitely look for someone who is really honest and a very confident guy, but not arrogant and definitely someone who makes me laugh. They have to have banter, without a doubt," she explained.
Maura describes her biggest turn-off in a guy as, "Arrogance and someone who acts different around their friends. I can’t bear that!" Her celebrity crush is Chris Hemsworth, and we have to stan.
In terms of fidelity, Maura says, "If I’m in a relationship with someone, I’m loyal. That’s it. I’ve never cheated. I’ve been cheated on. I will trust someone until they do something wrong to me, I’m very much like that."
Speaking about girl code (*cough* Molly-Mae *cough*), she admitted;
"I think if you’ve put a label on something, boyfriend and girlfriend, then you just don’t go there. If there is a girl and a guy in there and they’ve put a label on it, I would never go there and I would hope that no one would do it to me."
She emphasises that she's the perfect Islander because, "I’m outgoing and I really am looking to find love. I’m a relationship type of girl. I hate being single."
"I was in a nine-year relationship that finished a few years ago. Then I was with another guy, we broke up last year sometime, then we got back together but the trust was gone and it’s not going to come back.
"It ended quite recently. As the trust is just gone, for me, there is no going back," she added.
She also revealed that she's willing to do whatever it takes, "I’d go extreme. It can obviously be hard because you could be really close with one of the girls but you’re in there to find love at the end of the day."
Maura Higgins from Longford sounds like someone who would be selected for an episode of Winning Streak. I stan. https://t.co/8UJgFEkBFC
What's her claim to fame, though? "Through my modelling work, I’ve worked with athletes and people who’ve been in the public eye. I did a visual shoot for Liam Payne as well." Alright then…
Maura isn't heading into the villa alone. 26-year-old "eyelash technician" from Essex, Elma Pazar, is also joining the crew.
Who do you think they'll couple up with, or will they stay single? The drah-mah…we're not ready.
It has just been announced that Love Island contestant Sherif Lanre has been kicked out of the villa and won't be coming back, not even for Anna.
Bosses confirmed via Twitter that they have “mutually agreed” with Sherif that he should leave the ITV2 reality show after he broke the rules.
The reason behind his removal not confirmed, but according to Love Island Reactions, viewers will find out what happened on tonight and tomorrow night's shows.
It's suspected to be the fact that he's been seen on his phone numerous times on camera, but apparently he will pretty much just vanish from sight after tomorrow and Ian Stirling will do a voiceover announcement.
Sherif has been REMOVED from the #LoveIsland villa, and will not be returning. Find out what happened on tonight’s and tomorrow night’s shows. pic.twitter.com/zoxdlfavDp
— Love Island Reactions (@LoveIsIandUK) June 11, 2019
A spokesperson for the show said: “After breaking the villa rules Sherif had conversations with the producers and it was mutually agreed that he would leave the Love Island villa.”
Sherif said: “In a case of poor judgement, I broke the villa rules and as a result agreed with the producers that it was best for me to leave the villa.
“I regret that I didn’t conduct myself in the right way and, as a 20-year-old guy, it’s something I know I will take on board and learn from." Police weren't involved, so it was presumably minor.
Love Island is back on our screens for the next eight weeks, but there are more than a few issues which need to be addressed.
We're talking racism, we're talking homophobia, we're talking ablism, we're talking sexism, we're talking class, we're talking body diversity…the whole can of worms.
Each of these topics deserve to be tackled individually, no doubt. Bear in mind during this article that, as a Caucasian woman, I cannot speak for the experiences of other ethnicities and it's incredibly important to listen to their personal stories rather than another white woman's take on their livelihoods.
In this article, it's time to talk about the racial bias in the infamous reality television show, which sees Islanders couple up in the hopes of winning the £50,000 cash prize. Does everyone have a fair chance, though?
I only just noticed this..
Series 2 – Malin was picked last…
Series 3 – Marcel was picked last…
Series 4 – Samira was picked last….
Series 5 – Yewande was picked last..
qWHITE interesting that #LoveIsland
One tweet in particular did the rounds last night and is currently on 37,000 likes and 5.7 thousand reweets for the point it made about former contestants-of-colour.
From Malin and Marcel in series two and three, to Samira in the fourth season, and now Yewande in the latest episode: People-of-colour are always chosen last for the coupling.
These statistics are troubling when we hear how much racial abuse has been sent to Yewande Biala, the Irish candidate who works in cancer research as a scientist.
“Irish accent doesn’t suit her”…I just read about Yewande. Some people with access to app are THICK AS SH*T. She IS Irish, why oh why I wonder doesn’t her accent “suit her” according to this dummy #LoveIsland
Members of the public are literally questioning her nationality despite the fact she has an Irish accent and refers to herself as Irish, and trolls persistently send abuse her way online.
Former Love Island contestant Samira Mighty has now expressed her fear that Yewande will experience the same micro-aggressions and racism as what she was subjected to last season.
She ultimately failed to find love on the show, with the male contestants evidently not finding her attractive. She left the show after a failed coupling with Frankie Foster, but is now speaking out.
Yewande Biala (left) and Samira Mighty (right)
"I feel like there has been so many comparisons between the two of us," she told Metro.co.uk. "The only thing that is similar – it’s not even the colour of our skin – it’s that she is a shade of brown.
"I was trending on Twitter when the line-up came out because of the comparisons. I’m different from her. I’m a theatrical person and she’s a scientist. I think our personalities are different. You can even see it in the first introduction video."
23-year-old Yewande is of Nigerian descent, and has faced criticism online for her choice of men and even her preference for wearing a wig instead of a weave. The standards aren't the same for Caucasian contestants.
Samira also expressed frustration about the pressure for people-of-colour in the villa to choose each other as a couple, such as Sherif and Yewande:
"If Sherif does pick her, people are going to say “Oh okay, there is a black couple” and then it’s going to be cliche. It’s just weird. Everyone chill out. It’s now 2019, we should be able to do whatever we want."
Another ex-Islander, Marcel Somerville, has bemoaned the racial bias in the show after the contestants coupled up, and Yewande was picked last.
This is mad!!!! #LoveIsland flash backs! Black guy, black girl and mixed race guy all left unpicked. Mad!!!
"Love Island flashbacks," he tweeted. "Black guy, black girl and mixed race guy all left unpicked. Mad!!!" the former Blazin' Squad member wrote,
None of the female contestants stepped forward to indicate their attraction to him back in 2017 while he was in the competition.
This year, newbies Yewande Biala, Sherif Lanre and Michael Griffiths were all sidelined during the first episode, with Scottish contestant Anton Danyluk causing trouble already.
Before the start of this year's series, fans of the show asked ITV to remove Danyluk after an image of him wearing blackface makeup was discovered from six years ago.
Somerville explained the deeply offensive nature of blackface on his Instagram story, explaining that it "invokes a racist and painful history". Blackface only conceals racism, and yet ITV allowed him to stay on the show.
Last year, Samira was the first woman-of-colour to take part in the show's history, and only one man out of sixteen in the villa were interested in her. A gorgeous West End performer, who boys aren't attracted to? What?
In Samira's time in the villa, Megan Barton-Hanson (the blonde and slim contestant) was referred to as “everyone's type on paper”. It seems that Lucie Donlon, the blonde, slim surfer model, is this year's Megan.
Anton and Joe are already vying to win the heart of the 21-year-old, with Anton seeking to ditch Amy (another slim, blonde contestant) who he's been paired up with presumably very soon.
Is it just micro-aggressions, or are narrow-minded Eurocentric ideas of beauty unavoidable in this show?
Sorry Caroline, the show could stand to have some more diversity. It’s hard for slim, white, straight people to relate to this sometimes. I understand that. You can’t begin to understand erasure because you’re constantly represented. The show would be even better with diversity. https://t.co/pXgZZJr3om
From a huge lack of body diversity as well as racial, the reality show is catering for a miniscule amount of the population when it comes to representation.
It's easy to dismiss it as just car-crash tv, but millions of people watch Love Island, and seeing the same type of beauty ideal over and over again is disturbingly damaging.
Jameela Jamil opened up on Twitter about her sadness and anger at the lack of body types represented by the show, whose bosses claim it's because they want the contestants to be "attracted to one another."
How much more careful and polite do I have to be to be able to partake in discourse with white women without getting accused of attacking? I already have to respond to them treading on *eggshells* because of the aggression I am labeled with. pic.twitter.com/msPwFcJitS
Jamil and the show's host, Caroline Flack, disagreed on their stances about diversity, with news websites painting Jamil as angry and irrational.
In reality, she was just trying to express concern for under-represented body types, ethnicities, gender and abilities.
The show is undoubtedly telling us that only slim, toned, blonde, white, big-breasted women are beautiful enough to catch a man, and only tall, white men with bronzed abs are good enough to be deemed attractive for women.
Stereotypes and tropes surrounding people-of-colour are undoubtedly present, such as Jamil's experience of being the 'angry brown woman'.
EXCLUSIVE: As a black woman, Yewande Biala, 23, says she had reservations about joining the ITV show after treatment of Samira Mighty…https://t.co/bauqyOhUIb
— Networkofnews UK (@NetworkofnewsUK) June 1, 2019
However, it's women-of-colour that appear to be experiencing the most difficulties.
Valerie Ross of Scientific Americanwrote about the non-verbal behaviour towards reality tv stars of different races affecting the viewers' prejudice, and her data is overwhelming.
On-screen body language towards people-of-colour can increase unconscious prejudice in viewers, according to Tufts University research.
Esteemed journalist and researcher Cheryl Thompson has also written about the portrayal of black women on reality tv, pointing out three key tropes; the 'Mammy', the 'Jezebel' and the 'Sapphire'.
Three racial stereotypes of black womanhood which came to light at various historical moments in Western media culture.
The 'Mammy' has links with servitude and the trademark subservient, mothering figure. The 'Jezebel', born out of chattel slavery, was seen as a sexually depraved, immoral and lascivious black woman. The 'Sapphire' was born on television; angry, emasculating and loud black women. Recognise the signs?
Serena Williams was cast as the racist “angry black woman” trope in headlines and debates across the world when she spoke out against an umpire for discrimination. pic.twitter.com/yjFtfHPGVG
Lack of representation on television can be seen outside of the reality genre, but the experiences of Love Islanders-of-colour speaks for itself. Everything is trying to tell them that they don't fit the ideal of beauty, just like the lack of ethnicity on runways, ad campaigns and film.
Serena Williams could never get the amount of sponsorships in fashion as her blonde, slim tennis players, who weren't even close to her talent. Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks revolutionised modelling for black women, but experienced immense difficulties in the process. Black women still rarely get cast in lead roles in film, theatre and television.
What does this tell you about who the public want to see on their screens? Not to mention the lack of care they give towards the mental health of Islanders. The damage which a lack of body diversity and ethnicities does to viewers is undeniable, if you don't see yourself then you assume you aren't enough. You would feel invisible.
One argument I have heard for the lack of diversity is that 'token' candidates such as a plus-sized Islander or woman-of-colour, face a barrage of abuse online as they are clearly the lone representatives.
It's important to take their mental health into account, can they handle this level of online racial or body-orientated abuse? The fact that they have to choose between being represented but abused as a result or not seeing themselves on a screen at all is depressing and unfair.
Yet the less the public see of other races, genders, classes, body types and abilities, the more they will misunderstand them and hold high levels of ignorance. Ignorance leads to consequences.
