Love Island’s Molly-Mae Hague has opened up about her relationship with food and exercise before and while being on the show, saying she was ‘extremely underweight’ and is much healthier six months post-leaving the show.
‘I was a stone and a half lighter a year ago but that’s because I was at the gym twice a day, and was obsessed with my diet,’ Hague told OK! Magazine. ‘All I was eating was couscous and rice. It was probably unhealthy, and I was extremely underweight for my height.
‘I was a size four,’ she continued. ‘I might not be as confident in my body as I was before, but I am healthier.’
Opening up about the impact of trolling and comments on her weight gain, she said she often feels insecure. ‘I was reading through comments on a bikini photo of me and they were so mean,’ she said. ‘Someone commented that they have a better body and they have six kids. I got so upset.’
However, the positive comments she does receive validates her, she says. ‘There has been a lot of love on the pictures though, which makes me feel like it’s alright to be this size. I’m strong so I can take the nasty comments.
‘I’m glad it’s happening to me over other people,’ she continued. ‘If I get upset, then Tommy says, "If I think you look amazing then why do you care about them?"'
Her comments add to a growing concern about how Love Island contestants prepare for the show, with many other women speaking about crash dieting or under-eating before heading into the villa. Last year, 2018 contestant Savanna Darnell said she didn’t eat carbs for two weeks before she was due to go on the show and resorted to binge-eating when her time as a contestant was delayed.
‘Thinking back to this time I’m thinking “omg what did I put myself through?”’ she said in a YouTube video about her experience.
With Winter Love Island coming up next month, it’s a reminder that appearing on a show all about ‘sexy singles’ is not all it’s cracked up to be.
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