Olivia Hawkins has caused a stir since she left Love Island after a joke she made has confused fans. When addressing rumours that she’s an industry plant in a recent video for The Sun she said: ‘Apparently my dad’s the CEO of Love Island. That made me laugh. You have to laugh don’t you.’
Who is the CEO of Love Island?
Immediately, Love Island CEO and ‘Who is Olivia Hawkins dad’ started trending on Google. But we can report, alas, it was a joke, as Olivia said. She laughed at how ridiculous the idea was. According to the programme’s Wikipedia page it has been owned by ITV Studios (2005-) and Motion Content Group (2015-). As such, Love Island doesn't have a CEO but the show's executive producer is Mike Spencer.
A reason why fans have been so quick to jump on the idea that she could be an insider is because she's already been branded a ‘fake’ contestant. People have made a number of observations they think back up their theory. Firstly, she’s an actor, and, as in most reality shows , no one trusts an actor or considers that they might not be acting the entire time and might be genuinely on the show to raise their profile (oops, I mean find love) like everyone else.
She also appears in promotional clips of Love Island, which has made fans suspicious that she knew producers before going on the show and that she has received special treatment. She’s no stranger to the world of television so then she must be plant, or so the narrative goes.
But in the video, the former contestant – who was in six different couples when she was in the villa – also said: ‘People are open to their opinions. They only see such a small amount of time of us in there. You don’t see all the friendships and all the funny parts. There’s a lot people don’t see. In there that was my true self and my raw emotions. I really went through it, even being in six couples, having again and again them not working out it really did take me steps back and it was hard to deal with. So yeah, absolutely no acting was going on in there. That was my true self.’
She left the villa with her ‘exclusive’ partner Maxwell Samuda. It sounds like it’s time to take her word for it and stop speculating about her connections. No, her dad isn’t the CEO of Love Island. She earned her place there like everybody else.