A contestant on Love Island has found himself facing accusations of 'possessive' and 'controlling' behaviour by abuse charity Women's Aid after comments he made during a heated exchange on the ITV2 show.
The issue arose after Jonny Mitchell saw red when new boy Theo Campbell chose to 'couple up' with his current partner Tyla Carr. Jonny's actions towards Tyla could be seen as warning signs of an abusive relationship, according to the charity's CEO Polly Neate.
In a piece titled: 'Love Island: why we need to call out controlling “banter"', Carr wrote: 'When Jonny said that new arrival Theo would have to prise Tyla 'from my cold dead hands' it was not romantic. It did not demonstrate how much he liked her. It was possessive and controlling. What can all too easily be passed off as banter, actually carries the underlying sentiment that this man believes he owns this woman.'
Tensions first started bubbling under the surface in a previous episode, when Jonny was seen starting a fight with Theo just for talking to Tyla - because she was his partner.
Speaking to Tyla, Theo raised concerns about Jonny's possessive behaviour, saying: 'He is on you 24/7. To me that shows how insecure he is at the moment and to not even let you out of his grasp, out of his sight... if he can lose his head that easily, imagine you go to a club or something and you get a photo with another boy, he'll lose his head.'
It's not the first time that Jonny has found himself in hot water with critics, after he told former partner Camilla that he thought feminism was 'almost inequality' and that he would feel 'emasculated' if a woman had offered to pay for a date.
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