According To A Former Islander: ‘The Love Island Producers Can Do Whatever They Want’

If you’re anything like us, and you’re glued to this year’s Love Island, then you probably can’t help but think how much of it is genuinely real. And, according to former Islanders - Jonny Mitchell and Laura Anderson - not everything is always as it seems.

‘The producers can do whatever they want. They can push you in certain directions and make you do certain things,’ Jonny - who dumped Camilla Thurlow for Tyla Carr in the 2017 series - told Closer magazine. ‘When I was in there, they'd call you out of the villa and they'd sit down with you and go, “How are you feeling about this girl?”'

He even added that the producers have 'tactics' and know who they want to win. He added, ‘If there's a new girl they'd say, “I think she's good looking. Do you think she's good looking? Why don't you get to know her?” They even push you on who to choose in the recouplings! It's all tactics. I think they already have their own agenda and their own idea of who they want to win.’

Meanwhile, Laura - from last year's series - told the magazine about how the conversations happen for the cameras. ‘There's no script whatsover but the producers come and speak to us, and they know everything that's going on,’ she said. ‘We'd be asked to hold off having a conversation until later. They'd make the boys sit and have dinner, and the girls sit and have dinner, and ask us to keep our conversations for later when we weren't eating. If there were five different conversations, they'd try to limit it to three. And tell us to let others have a chat first. It was more about timing than control.’

Megan Barton-Hanson's ex-boyfriend Wes Nelson defended the producers though, saying, 'I know other Islanders have said the producers guided them but my experience was as organic as can be. The only time they'd reshoot scenes was if they didn't get the right angle - they wouldn't ask us to repeat conversations or act in a certain way. The producers never told me to do anything. The only thing they'd do was give you a little nudge as to who to invest your time in.'

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