Former Love Islander Lucie Donlan says she almost quit the show – and it was all down to alleged bullying from the girls.
The 21-year-old surfer from Cornwall says she felt ganged up on from the other girls on the hit reality ITV2 series.
Viewers were concerned for her mental health when she cried after her TV partner Joe Garrett told her to spend more time with the other girls in the villa.
Read more: AJ Pritchard says Amy Hart sent him a private message
But Lucie says she wasn’t crying from his ‘controlling’ words, but rather the pressure she felt from her female rivals on the show.
“I can remember sitting there crying and thinking, ‘Will it be like this all the way through? Oh God, I won’t be able to cope with that’,” Lucie told the paper.
She added that the other girls liked the drama, but she just wanted to find love.
She said it was “like being in a school playground” and she felt “really alone”.
Lucie added: “Maura and I were inseparable in the villa. When she first came into the villa, she said to me, ‘I realise how they’ve been treating you and I don’t like to see it, so I’m going to back you’.
“Then, when Arabella came in, she told the other girls immediately that she had seen what had been happening between them and me — that they had all ganged up on me. They denied it but they obviously realised bad things were being shown on TV. And they didn’t like it, so they backed off after that.”
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Lucie’s crying outbreaks prompted hundreds of people to complain to Ofcom.
Ofcom reported that within days of the incident they had received 302 complaints about Lucie’s interactions with her fellow contestants.
While Joe was voted off shortly after, Lucie failed to find a spark with her new TV partner George Rains.
The pair were voted off last week by their other contestants in order to save then couple Curtis Pritchard and Amy Hart.
Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2.
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