Love Island’s Olivia Hawkins has lashed out at trolls after receiving “a lot of hate” since leaving the South African village and speaking out on the social media ban.
The 27-year-old influencer revealed she had received a lot of “nasty comments” since leaving the ITV show as she blasted trolls for their unkind comments.
For the first time in Love Island history, ITV2 banned the islanders’ social media activity during the show, after loved ones had previously taken over their accounts.
The big change was decided upon by the producers after years of friends and family struggling to cope with the levels of trolling they received while managing their loved ones’ social media accounts from home.
This year, the cast members’ pages remained ‘dormant’ during their time in the villa, and Olivia has expressed her candid thoughts on whether or not it was a positive rule change.
Tough: Love Island’s Olivia Hawkins has hit out at trolls after receiving ‘a lot of hate’ since leaving the South African villa
the girl with the ring admitted it was very “confrontational” as she said she “wouldn’t have wanted” her family to see the hate she received, but now she has to deal with it alone.
Speaking at Capital XTRA Breakfast on Wednesday, he said: “It’s hard because I obviously got a lot of hate when I came out so I wouldn’t have wanted my family to have seen that.”
“But then again, when I turn on my phone, I had to see it all for myself.
‘Yes, so it’s contradictory, but I completely understand because it’s my choice to go on the show. He’s not from my family, so I wouldn’t want them to have to deal with all that hate.
‘Some of the comments have been really nasty. I think people feel that we are like TV characters. But we are real people.
In previous series, the Islander teams used their accounts to encourage viewers to vote for them and increase their following, but this has led to them being abused by trolls and fighting with family and friends of other contestants.
The social media ban has also had a massive impact on Islander’s reach, with only three of the six finalists having more than 200,000 followers by the time the show came to a close.
In years past, the stars have garnered hundreds of thousands of fans on their respective platforms, and Molly-Mae Hague and Olivia Attwood now boast millions.
Elsewhere on Wednesday’s radio show, Olivia opened up about her relationship with islander Zara Lackenby-Brown, with whom she shared a lot of drama.
During the series, Zara, 25, started off on the wrong foot with the ring girl after they both had their eyes on Tom and Clare came to blows several times.
But ending the drama, Olivia insisted that everything had been ‘squashed’.
She said: ‘Any drama on my part has stayed in the villa. It has been crushed.
Tough: The 27-year-old influencer revealed she had received a lot of “nasty comments” since leaving the ITV show and admitted she “wouldn’t have wanted” her family to see it
Conflict: During her appearance on the radio show, Olivia also opened up about her relationship with islander Zara Lackenby-Brown, with whom she shared a lot of drama.
“I saw Zara last night, had a very long conversation, we are fine. We talked about everything last night, honestly we’re fine, I think she’s a great girl.
It comes after Sanam Harrinanan and Kai Fagan were crowned winners of Love Island Winter 2023 on Monday night, beating original pair Ron Hall and Lana Jenkins for the £50k cash prize.
After eight weeks of drama, viewers chose the social worker and physical education teacher, who fell in love during Casa Amor, as their champions.
Despite their victory, Kai and Olivia were originally together in the series before Casa Amor, where they both left each other for new partners.
Olivia maintained that Kai had only chosen to get together with Sanam to stay safe and was angered when he refused to apologize to her for getting back together.
But speaking after her triumph, Olivia claimed she was “very happy” about her previous fling.
Speaking on the breakfast show, he said: ‘Honestly, I’m really happy for them. I have seen many comments that say “Olivia must be very angry”.
‘Honestly, I’m really happy for them. I’m happy for any of the top four, I thought any of them deserved it, but they’re much better prepared than him and me.
Taking to Twitter, many fans had joked that olivia he must be home ‘smoking’ after his ex kai won the show.
One said: ‘Olivia must be furious and kicking herself. I’m happy that Kai and Sanam won!’
Another repeated: “I know Olivia is in there somewhere banging her head.”
Winners! It comes after Love Island fans joked that Olivia Hawkins must be home ‘furious’ after her ex Kai Fagan won the show on Monday night with Sanam Harrinanan.
Brave face: Olivia took to her Instagram Stories to share a photo of Kai and Sanam after their win, but she took the high road, writing, “Happy for them.”
A third added: ‘the way Olivia is fuming because Kai beat lmfao.’
A fourth person noted: ‘Olivia was always talking shit saying she “finally understood why she and Kai were always in the background” now now she’ll see him win and realize it was always her’.
A fifth agreed, writing, “Olivia watched Kai win Love Island after thinking he was the problem #LoveIsland.”
While a sixth tweeted: “I know Olivia is furious at home seeing Kai being so loved after the way she tried to make him a villain in her story.”
And a seventh said, ‘And both Kai and Ron finished in the top two, Olivia must be furious right now.’
Olivia took to her Instagram Stories to share a photo of Kai and Sanam after their win, but she took the high road, writing, “Happy for them.”
Kai and Sanam’s victory it marked the first time a Casa Amor bomba had entered the show and taken victory in the show’s eight-year history.
The couple was left speechless when presenter Maya Jama announced the results during the live finale in South Africa.
Previous Affair: Kai and Olivia originally got together in the series before Casa Amor, where they both dumped each other for new partners.
Before her win, Sanam accidentally revealed that she has a crush on Kai, while he told viewers to “watch this space” on how to make the beauty his girlfriend in the outside world.
Tom Clare, 23, and Samie Elishi, 22, took third place in the competition, while airport security officer Shaq Muhammad, 24, and Tanya Manhenga, 22, were the first out .
After her win, Sanam told 28-year-old Maya, ‘I can’t believe it,’ while Kai was speechless.
She said of their romance, “For me, it was always Kai, like I always said he was my number one.” He obviously is a very attractive guy but he made me fall in love with everything. Everything about him I loved. I really didn’t think he was going to be here. I’m going to cry.’