Love Island bosses have denied claims they engineered a relationship between Maura Higgins and Curtis Pritchard on the programme.
The rebuttal comes after several viewers suggested producers had pushed Higgins to express an interest in Pritchard following his breakup with Amy Hart, who chose to leave the programme in Tuesday’s episode.
Viewers claimed Higgins’ attraction to the professional dancer came out of nowhere and subsequently questioned whether she had been encouraged to pursue him in order to create drama in the villa.
But a spokesperson for the ITV2 show has said “this is untrue” and stressed that contestants on the show have total control over the romantic choices they make.
"The opinions the Islanders have, decisions they make and the relationships formed are completely within the control of the Islanders themselves," they added.
Hart announced she was leaving the programme in Tuesday night’s episode so that she could “heal” from her breakup with Pritchard, who ended the relationship after developing a romantic interest in another contestant, Jourdan Riane, while in Casa Amor.
“You are not going to be happy whilst I’m still here,” Hart told Pritchard. “I’m going to let you go and you pursue whoever it is you want to pursue and hope that you find whatever you are looking for.”
The emotional exchange prompted a flurry of support for Hart on Twitter, with thousands of people revealing it had moved them to tears.
"I really wanted myself to stop crying but the tears kept on coming," one user tweeted.
"Why am I crying like I’m the one heartbroken," another added.
You can read more about Hart’s speech here.
