Dr Alex George was teased in and outside the Love Island villa for turning a bright shade of pink as soon as he faced the Majorcan rays.
Now the A&E medic has revealed his susceptibility to sunburn was not because he wasn’t vigilant about slapping on the suncream after being accused of not being careful enough in the sun.
“What about the sunburn, you were a bit pink in there. You are a doctor of all people why weren’t you putting on the suncream?” presenter Jonathan Samuels asked him on Wednesday’s Sky News.
“There have been a lot of jokes about it but I do take sunburn very seriously,” he defended himself. “Unfortunately I have a skin condition where I take medication which makes me very sensitive to the sun.
“We were out in the sun all day and even though I was absolutely lathering myself in factor 50, unfortunately I was still coming up a bit pink.”
He warned others: “It is so important to protect yourself against the sun. It’s just unfortunate my condition meant I did burn a bit.”
Read more: Love Island’s Jack Fincham vows to marry Dani Dyer next year
Alex’s fellow islanders would often joke about his pink colour while he was also mocked about it in numerous social media posts throughout the series.
“They should dump Alex for his own health and safety,” joked one referring to his sunburn.
Alex needs to come home already,” agreed another. “He looks like he’s been on an all inclusive holiday on the sun.”
Even his former partner Alexandra’s mum, Janice, teased him about it when she appeared on the show in the meet the parents episode.
She told him he was “not nearly as red in the flesh as he is on telly” before she gave the 27-year-old what for over how he’d treated her daughter.
Alex revealed on Sky News that he was disappointed not to leave the villa with a girlfriend after his eight week stay, insisting he went on the show to find love and not fame.
“I have spoken to a lot of people at the end of their lives and they always say they regret the things they haven’t done and the opportunities not taken. When this came up for me I thought, ‘is it the right thing for me?’ and then I thought it’s such an amazing opportunity to do something completely different,” he said.
He justified his time off from his NHS job by saying he’s hardly had a holiday in the last three years and never predicted he would be there for eight weeks.
He said he would be delighted to return to his job at Lewisham Hospital when “things are a lot calmer.”
Yesterday he admitted on This Morning that he’d also be keen to have a role on television as a medical advisor.
Alex and Alexandra were voted off Love Island just a day before the final, which was won by Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham.
Figures released by ITV have revealed how the public voted, with none of the other couples coming close to taking the £50,000.
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