Better late than never, I guess, but well overdue. After two previous contestants committed suicide, ITV has announced new duty-of-care protocols for the upcoming series of Love Island, AKA narcissism and nookie, which kicks off on June 28.
The plan to keep the contestants’ mental health on an even keel includes therapy, financial advice, and how to handle the impact of social media (don’t get engaged with it, maybe?)
Plus there’s also training on how to deal with the stresses of life in the villa with a bunch of competitive strangers all hoping for the same outcome (and often all sleeping in the same bed).
Of course they know what they’ve signed up for – the chance to flaunt their perfect bodies, maybe find a lifelong partner, clearly to land fame and fortune. Although with the fee standing at just £250 per week last time around, they certainly ain’t going to become millionaires overnight. The money to be made is when they leave the villa as a newly famous person.
What is your view? Have your say in the comment section
The whole thing is my idea of mental-health hell; a surefire way to watch your self-esteem plummet while you die inside. By its very nature it’s a shallow show planned to sort the aesthetic wheat from the not-so-pretty chaff. Oh, and in front of millions of viewers, who won’t hesitate to make their nasty, mentally bruising comments known on social media.
Unless you’ve been there, as a figure of envy and hate for no reason, you will never know what that feels like. Unfortunately, I do. Love Island is a ritual and it’s a mass humiliation that very rarely results in a partnership for life.
Boxer Tommy Fury and his partner Molly-Mae Hague are one of the few pairs to have formed a long-lasting relationship on leaving Love Island.
Sadly others have chosen a darker exit after the show, damaged by negative scrutiny, the ripping up of their self-esteem and a bashing of their mental health.
