It’s safe to say that Georgia Steel’s Love Island All Stars journey has been something of a rollercoaster. The 25-year-old started off by rekindling a past romance with Toby Aromolaran, before coupling up with Callum Jones when Toby unceremoniously decided he needed to ‘be open’, only for Georgia to end up conflicted over her feelings for Callum when a second ex, Tom Clare, entered the villa.
In the most recent episodes, she’s found herself venturing back toward Toby after he suddenly realised his true match was her all along and dramatically chose her during a recoupling.
When you see it written down like that, it all sounds quite romantic, right? Like the plot of a very Gen-Z rom-com. But of course, this is Love Island, so watching it on screen has been more messy than moving. And now, Georgia Steel is facing a barrage of hate online – viewers condemning the way she approached her continuous love triangles. In fact, the trolling has been so bad that her family has been forced to speak out online, posting on Instagram:
‘The last few episodes have been difficult for us to watch, but what’s far worse is the hate Georgia is receiving online. It is a TV show, and everyone has their opinions, please remember it’s not real life! Sending vile threats and nasty messages and comments is totally unacceptable. Trolling is not OK.’
The family went on to say that the trolling has ‘deeply hurt’ them and will ‘devastate’ Georgia when she leaves the villa. They have since turned the comments off on her Instagram, but the relentless trolling has continued over on X.
It should go without saying that trolling is never acceptable, but apparently it must be stated again. Regardless of your feelings about Georgia’s behaviour, adding to the sheer volume of hateful messages at this stage is entirely irresponsible – and death threats, or misogynistic trolling, is never ok.
On said ‘misogyny’, it’s also strikingly clear that there’s a double-standard when it comes to the reaction to Georgia versus male Islander’s who’ve behaved in the same way. Take Toby for example, who has hurt both Georgia and Arabella Chi throughout his romantic escapades but has seemingly been welcomed warmly by viewers.
One must not forget the importance of editing too when it comes to how Islanders are portrayed. Year after year contestants complain of the falling foul to the ‘villain edit’ - when a person’s behaviour on screen is edited in a way to make them appear worse – and insist their actions weren’t nearly as bad as they seemed. This is, after all, a TV show built to create dramatic moments. Perhaps we should bear in mind then that we’re only seeing a fraction of Georgia’s time and conversations in the villa and grant her the grace to explain her experience when she eventually leaves. If you’re posting about the show online, just remember there’s a person on the other end of that who will see that comment in the context of thousands of others – there’s only so much hate a person can be subject to, and no one deserves that to feel that isolated.